Silica Art Online
by DasGibbers
Summary: With the exception of a short few days, Silica's two year story was never told. What did Silica do during those long two years? As they say, "Everyone is the hero of their own story."
1. Chapter 1

Keiko strode across the hilltop, looking down upon the horde of monsters in front of her. All manner of beasts, from orcs to trolls to undead, surged towards her, likely to reach her position in less than a few minutes. Narrowing her eyes, she noticed that while the enemy troops had sword and spear in abundance, they were distinctly lacking in any form of ranged weapons—hopefully an advantage she could exploit. Of course, with a force of over six hundred strong, they weren't going to be pushovers, even with that possible advantage.

Turning around, she held up her hand to block the sun as she looked over her own small group of men and women. Numbering just shy of two hundred, the force of heavily armed and armored soldiers stood ready, with perfect battle lines set up in the shield wall formation she had ordered them in. Unlike the vile creatures just behind her, these brave souls were the very definition of discipline and order and would likely fight to the last to protect the town behind them. Not only that, but their skill and gear was second to none, each one of them given the best that could be afforded for this most important of missions. Of course, while that made each one of them worth at least three of the monsters, they were still at a heavy disadvantage.

Of course, that was why she was here.

An allied soldier came running from the left, took a knee and bowed his head in front of her. "High General Keiko the Great, the men are ready and formed up."

Keiko nodded. Quickly, she turned on her heel and, after brushing her long onyx hair behind an ear, looked back down on the sea of enemies just starting to reach the bottom of the hill. "Good. What's the word on the men? Are they holding up well?"

There was a momentary pause, before the soldier replied. "They'll fight, but they are feeling... nervous. Being outnumbered so heavily is making a few wonder if there is even a chance to survive."

Keiko nodded again, resting her left hand on the hilt of her sheathed blade. "Understandable. Thank you, Captain. That will be all."

The sounds of the captain standing reached her as he said a last, "Yes, ma'am!" and moved off to his position in the line.

Looking over the monsters a few seconds longer, she shook her head. Again, she turned around, this time facing the soldiers—her soldiers. Slowly, she walked down the line, the silvered plate armor leaving a distinct clank with every step that she took. What the captain said was true. Every single one of these soldiers came here prepared to fight to the last to save the town behind them, and each would undoubtedly say that they would follow her to hell and back. Yet, she saw their true feelings in the few eyes she was able to make out through the helmets: each and every one felt that they were sent here to die.

"Brave men and women," she started, folding her hands behind her back as she looked onto her soldiers. "You have been gathered here today to protect the innocent people of the kingdom. If not for you, those vile creatures down there would charge into there, steal everything, and capture or kill all the innocents of that town. You all are the only ones standing in between them and that fate. Even so, most people would simply run away and think of nothing more but to save their own lives."

Keiko took a second to let the words sink in, then smiled. "But you are not most people."

Turning around, she paced back the other direction. "Instead, you are two hundred of the best men and women that I have ever had the honor of serving with. You soldiers—no, you heroes—make me honored to have the privilege of leading you into battle. Each one of you is worth more than a dozen of them, so despite them outnumbering us, it is _them_ that should be terrified of _you_. Let's show those cowards what real warriors are made of!"

All along the line, there were cheers of fellow men and women. Some were screaming out her name. Others were yelling out the name of the kingdom that they lived in. Some few were simply hollering nothing in particular, just wanting to make a wild noise. A small number drew their swords and lifted them high in the air. Many more bashed the flats of their swords against the sides of their shields. However, what was universally true was that all of them were ready to fight.

Taking a few steps to take her place in the line, she drew her two handed sword on her hip, and raised it high into the air. _Avenging Light_ was its name, named after the scores of evil it slew, all the while keeping its mirror-like sheen. The blade itself five feet long, the absurdly long blade would normally be too much for any woman to wield. However, at six feet tall herself, it was a simple matter. So instead of barely being able to lift it off the ground, she held it up high in the air and let it be a beacon for the rest of the line to look to.

Soon, the monsters were a mere twenty yards away. Lowering the blade into a vertical guard near her right shoulder, Keiko spread her stance and grinned. "And you better leave some of them for me!"

As soon as the words slipped out of her mouth, she took a step and swung out with an upward strike, starting the battle by slicing an orc from hip to shoulder, killing it instantly. Shifting to the right to avoid the now lifeless corpse crashing towards her, she followed through with her swing by rotating it around in a half circle and slashed forward with a horizontal cut, tearing into another orc across it's chest. With a kick, she shoved the orc away from her and into the monster behind it.

All around her, chaos erupted along the line as the various monsters crashed into the line of shields in the attempts to break the shield wall and bulldoze their way through the formation. As expected, the wall held, followed by a quick jab of her defenders from the gaps in between and below the shields, cutting into the front line of the orcs. Next to her left, a man smashed his shield into an enemy's face, following up with a quick jab into its neck, killing it.

Keiko had no more time to observe the line herself as she was set upon by more enemies. With a twist, she brought the full weight of the weapon she held onto the enemy in front of her with a downward strike. Unlike the last two though, this one had the sense to bring up his sword and take a small step to the side, allowing her own greatsword to slide along the orc's weapon and nearly into the dirt, leaving her exposed. The orc immediately jabbed forward to catch her while she was off balance, forcing her to lean back to try and dodge the stab. The potentially lethal blow was turned into a glancing hit along the right side of her chest, the blade grinding across her plate armor and over her shoulder. The orc stumbled forward as it overcommitted on the failed attack, and, with a grin, she twisted and thrust her weapon forward, slicing the side of the orc as she brought the weapon back to her. Stiffening for a moment, the orc slumped forward and onto the dirt.

As she scanned the group of enemies in front of her, she spotted what must have been the commander of the force: the orc's armor, shield, and sword actually resembling something worth bringing to a battle. She surged forward, hacking and slashing through the mass of orcs that feebly attempted to stop her. Nobody, not even the ten foot tall troll that got in front of her, could stand up to her unrelenting flurry of strikes, her presence being a near force of nature. A few more steps and another orc corpse, she found herself face-to-face with the orc commander.

Allowing no time to let him prepare, Keiko charged, throwing out a downward strike from her shoulder. He deflected the strike with a sideways parry of his sword and then took a step forward to bash her in the face with his shield. Staggered, Keiko could only barely shift herself partially out of the way of the orc's slash, catching most of it against her breastplate. Before she could retaliate, the commander shoved her away with his shoulder, making her stumble a couple arms' reach away from him.

Keiko raised her sword again and, with a glare, charged at him with another downward swing. Again, the orc parried it with his sword, raising his shield immediately after to once again bash her in the face. However, this time she hopped backwards, dodging the shield entirely and continuing the downward swing of her sword up and behind her so that it was at her left shoulder. His shield out of position, she lowered the point of her sword and jabbed it forward. He pulled his shield back and diverted the blow from his armpit, the sword glancing off of the armor on the orc's tricep, though she could feel and see that, even through the leather, she was able to cut into his arm a little.

Before she could push her advantage, the commander roared out and charged into a tackle, slamming both of them into the ground. Her sword fell out of her grasp, and she quickly found herself trapped under the bloodthirsty monster's massive form. The orc laughed, switched the hold on his sword to an overhand grip, and thrust the tip down onto her face. She jerked her head to the right, a few hairs getting caught under the deadly tip. Keiko brought her right fist forward, catching the orc in the jaw with the punch. She jabbed a couple more times against the side of his head before pushing against his form, flipping him over with her now on top.

Despite the slight disadvantage, the orc attempted to jab out with his sword. It did little as Keiko dodged the strike by shifting right and then trapped his sword arm under her left arm. Not giving him any chance to struggle, she quickly reached around with her right hand, drawing the dagger that was at the small of her back and pressed the blade against the orc's throat, causing him to stop his struggles.

With a few pants, Keiko smiled. "Any last words, you freak?"

The orc commander glared for a moment, then snarled, "What's the answer to question four?"

Keiko blinked, adjusting the grip of her dagger slightly. "Huh?"

"Number four! What is the value of X in question four?"

Keiko blinked, rubbed her eyes, and suddenly found herself sitting in her math classroom with her teacher hovering over her, the woman glaring right into her eyes. Recoiling back, Keiko glanced around the classroom, seeing a few of her classmates already snickering. Gulping, she tried desperately to look down at her book and find the question. "Umm... number four... umm..."

"Four X plus seven all over three equals nine. What's the value of X, Ayano?"

Blinking again, Keiko's eyed her notes, desperately looking for the answer as if it would just hop out of the text and call out to her. Unfortunately her luck didn't allow for such magic, her notebook remaining as empty as it was when her mind had wandered off some time ago.

"Umm," Keiko said, her voice cracking as she racked her brain for the answer. "The... umm... the answer is... uhh... twenty?"

The entire classroom laughed, causing her to slump in her chair. She could feel her face heating up as her teacher sighed and shook her head. "Ayano, have you been paying attention at all today?" Not pausing to for an explanation, her teacher turned to another student and said, "Sato, do you know the answer?"

Sato stood up. "Yes ma'am. The answer is five."

"Correct. Good work, Sato." The school bell suddenly rang out, and the teacher started walking back to the front of the room. "Remember, class: homework tonight is page ninety-seven, numbers one to twenty. Make sure to show your work. And please, read over the chapter again if you don't know exactly what you are doing." She looked right at Keiko. "Or didn't catch a few parts of the chapter."

The entire class rose and stated to pack up their things, Keiko sighing as she did the same. Putting her books and the very much untouched notebook into her bag, she quickly stood and made her way out the classroom door. Not bothering to wait for anybody, she walked through the hall, down the single flight of stairs to the first floor, then out the front doors of the school to head home.

"Keiko!" Keiko heard from behind her. Turning around, she noticed a few of her friends were waving at her. Stepping to the side of the sidewalk, she waited for the group of three brown-haired girls to catch up. Keiko smiled as she waved back, and the girl spoke again. "Dang, you were heading out of here like you were a girl on a mission!"

Keiko giggled as the now group of four made their way along the sidewalk. "What do you expect, Akane? Do _you_ want to stay in school all day and night? I just wanted get out of there as fast as possible."

"Uh huh," Hitomi said before Akane could reply, eying Keiko with her brown eyes. "Are you sure you weren't just trying to get out of that classroom as fast as possible because you were caught sleeping in class?"

She couldn't help but to wince at the memory. "Ugh, don't remind me. I've never been so embarrassed in my life. And I wasn't asleep... technically."

Hitomi crossed her arms, seemingly closed her eyes, and nodded her head. However, she was still peeking out from the corner of her eye at Keiko. "Uh huh. Sure you weren't."

"I'm serious!" Keiko said again, eliciting several giggles from the other three. "I mean it! I was just... thinking."

"Thinking? Thinking of what?"

 _Oh, only about the coolest game that's going to come out ever and how I'm definitely going to be able to play it._ Keiko thought to herself, before shaking her head. "Oh, I... uhh... I don't remember."

"You don't remember?" Hitomi shared a look with the other two girls, before nodding again. Leaning in closer, Hitomi slung her arm around Keiko's shoulders and didn't quite whisper into her ear. "You sure you weren't thinking about 'You Know Who?'"

Keiko's eyes flew open, but before she could say anything, Akane gasped. "You mean Iwoa? Oh my god!" She sighed as she hugged herself, her hair flowing with each step. "That guy is perfect in every way. I can't believe he still doesn't have a girlfriend. You think he'll like me? Either way, Keiko," Akane said as she grasped Keiko's right hand with both of hers and held it up to their faces between them. "I promise that if you have feelings for him, I'll let you make the first attempt if you want it."

"What!? No! No no no!" Keiko shouted as she flailed around, shrugging off Hitomi, stripping her hand out of Akane's, and took a few staggered steps forward. Turning around, she closed her eyes and stamped her foot on the pavement. "No! Ew! Like, no! I can't imagine even _thinking_ about being with him. That's like... ew!"

There was a moment where both Akane and Hitomi did not respond. After a few moments, Keiko opened her eyes to see the two of them, as well as Sakura, looking at her with furrowed brows. In unison, Akane and Hitomi both said, "Ew?"

"Yeah, just, ew." She turned back around and started walking down the sidewalk again. "Like... all he is is... you know... mur!"

Behind her, again the two girls questioned, "Mur?"

"You know..." Keiko took a few hurried steps forward before turning back around, brought her fists near her stomach in front of her, hunched over a tiny bit, and flexed. "Mur!"

The three kept walking forward as Hitomi said, "You mean like he's a strong guy?"

"I mean he's a meat-head." Keiko shrugged as she turned back around and walked alongside the other three again. Clasping her hands on the strap of her bag, she continued. "Like, okay fine. He's a decent looking guy—I'll give him that—but he's a total jerk, he treats every girl he talks to like they're his 'things,' I think he's an genuine idiot, and I saw him bullying someone a few days ago. Further, he burps in the middle of class sometimes, he chews with his mouth open, and I think I saw him doing nothing but draw motorcycles in his notebook yesterday too!"

"So what you're saying is you want a nicer, shorter guy who's smarter and likes to treat you like a little princess, right?" Keiko swore she saw Akane flash a look towards Hitomi as she spoke.

"Exactly! A nice, smart guy!"

"Hmm?" Akane grinned. "That sounds exactly like a certain brother we all know, now doesn't it?"

Keiko nearly fell flat on her face as she stumbled over her own two feet. Feeling her face heat up for the second time in an hour, she clenched her hands around the strap of her bag and looked down. "I do _not_ have a crush on my brother!"

Hitomi continued for Akane, seemingly oblivious of Keiko's reaction. "Hmm... Keiko and Sanso... I can't say that I would see them as the best couple, but even though he doesn't hold a candle to Iwoa in looks, he's not that bad on the eyes, he'll probably treat you nice, plus I'm sure he'll be able to support you in the future considering how smart he is. Gotta say, Keiko, I didn't take you as one who was hoping for the long shots."

Akane's smile grew wider. "So, who do you think is the adopted one? Keiko looks a lot like her father, but Sanso looks a lot like his mother."

Gasping, Hitomi covered her mouth with her hand. "What if neither are adopted, but they are actual blood siblings! That's so—"

"Oh my god this conversation is over!" Keiko yelled as she covered her ears and shook her head, desperately willing any thoughts that even dared to enter her mind out. Thankfully, the pair decided to keep silent after that, allowing her to relax and try to think about anything else than that... that... _horrid_ thought process.

Sudden, Sakura whispered, "Sanso and Keiko would be cute together though."

Keiko screamed as Akane and Hitomi burst out laughing on either side of her. It was right around then that she got to the train station, and for the first time in a long long time she was glad that she was leaving her friends behind for the rest of her trip home. Bidding them a very quick farewell, she stormed ahead, grumbling to herself as she quickly scanning her pass to get onto the train station, and soon afterward the train itself.

The train ride itself went by as it did every other day, with Keiko absent-mindlessly looking out the window towards the passing town as she wandered into her own thoughts. These days, those thoughts always fell back to the same subject: the upcoming game Sword Art Online. Slated to officially launch tomorrow, stores were actually selling the games starting at around noon today. Of course, with a game as crazy popular as this one was hyping up to be—being the first legitimate virtual reality MMO ever easily being its biggest draw—it was sure to have sold out the moment it was put on only people getting copies of the game at this point either waited in lines for days, were lucky enough to purchase it online during the short few minutes it was available, or the even luckier people that had been in the beta. Sure, there were the small handful of copies that were given out as prizes in various promotional contests and a couple given to the media, but for all intents and purposes, every copy was probably already claimed five minutes after they opened the floodgates.

Or at least that was what her brother had told her when he went on and on to her about this new game he was going to get. Keiko wasn't one to normally be into games like that—she was much more interested in phone games. However, the more he told her about the "World of Swords," the more she wanted to live out being a hero, so when he was done telling her about the game, she definitely surprised him by asking if she could play with him. Even more surprisingly, considering she assumed he would want to play with his friends, he had thought it was a pretty cool idea for the two of them to play together.

Keiko swallowed, rubbing her hands against one another. _What if Sanso decided it wasn't worth waiting in line for it? What if he wasn't able to get a copy? What if mom and dad found out?_ Keiko swallowed again. _What if he decided he didn't want to play with me after all?_

Shaking her head, she focused on her breathing. Forcing herself to leave that train of thought, she closed her eyes and thought back to the little daydream she had a couple hours ago. She _had_ to get a copy of the game, she had to be the series' biggest fan, after all. Months and months of waiting for it to come out. _Sure, I wasn't able to get into the beta test, but that didn't mean that I'm any less of a fan than those players... right?_

Smiling, Keiko opened her eyes, and pumped her fists in front of her. "Right!"

A few minutes later and the train arrived at her stop. Not wasting any time getting out of the train, she nearly ran the rest of the way home for the chance to talk to Sanso about his "mission." A trip that normally took fifteen minutes went by in less than five, ending with Keiko running up to the front door and reaching for it. Stopping for a second, she lowered her hand, took a deep breath, and moved her hands to her hair, doing her best to fix what must have been her somewhat disheveled twintails. After messing with them for a couple seconds and catching her breath, she opened the door and yelled, "Mom, I'm home!"

She heard yelling coming from the kitchen, but she couldn't make out the exact words. Figuring it was just mom saying hello, she immediately ran up the steps. Skipping every other step, she got to the top and, instead of taking a right to get to her room, took a left and went to Sanso's. She knocked on his door lightly and said, "Sanso, you in there?"

Sounds of fumbling came from behind the door, then the door opened to reveal Sanso. Keiko looked up at his bearded face as he leaned up against the doorframe and said "What's up?"

"Don't 'what's up' me," Keiko said as she pushed past him and looked in the room for her prize. "You know why I'm here. Where's the game?"

Keiko heard the door click closed behind her and she whirled around to look at her brother. With a sigh, he sat on the bed and rubbed his hand through his short, black hair. "Jeez... how do I say this... well... okay. So, you know how I got in line a couple days ago and all, and how there weren't many copies."

Keiko gulped. "Y-yeah. I know. That's why you got in line yesterday afternoon."

"Well, apparently there were a lot of people there that were there since a couple days before. Hell, I heard that the person in the front of the line had been there for almost a month! I mean... there were a lot of people in front of me." Sanso sighed and leaned back, supporting himself with his hands behind him on his bed. "I was at least a hundred people back."

As much as she didn't want to, she could help but to start feeling the burning of tears threatening to start. _No, I'm not going to cry. I prepared myself for this. I knew it was possible... and I... and I..._ "Y... yeah. Okay... so... so you..."

Suddenly smiling, Sanso reached under his pillow and pulled out a small box that said _Sword Art Online_ on the front. "I got you the last damn copy."

Gasping, Keiko couldn't help but to fly into his his arms, barreling into him and knocking him backwards into the bed as she laughed. She grabbed him tight as she squealed, her eyes now filled with tears from him pulling her emotions in every direction. She felt the two of them sit back up, his hands on her back to hold her up so she wouldn't fall onto the floor. With a smile still on her face, she leaned her head back and knocked her forehead against his chest in a pitiful excuse of a headbutt. "You jerk."

"Please, you know I absolutely had to do that," Sanso replied as he pulled her up into his lap entirely, sitting her on his right thigh. "Besides, I missed an entire day of classes to get it. Do you know how much mom and dad would kill me if they found out I not only lied to them about staying over at Yuu's place last night to study, but then skipped college today to buy that game?"

Keiko giggled again. "Probably not as much as if they found out you bought a violent game like that for me," she said, wiping her nose on his shirt.

"And now I'm your personal tissue," he said, smiling wider. Narrowing his eyes, he flicked her on the forehead. "Seriously though, you owe me big time here."

"Yeah yeah, I know," Keiko said as she rubbed her forehead. Sighing, she leaned against her brother's chest. "So we're actually going to be playing together, huh?"

She felt him take a deep breath, then release it, her head moving with the action. "Well... that's the bad news."

Scrunching her brow, she kept her head where it was. "Bad news?"

"Yeah. See, when I said I got the last copy, I mean I got the _last_ copy, not two copies." She felt him shrug. "It stinks, but whatcha gonna do? You know?"

"Oh." Keiko's felt the lightness in her heart stop as she was brought back down to earth. With a frown, she mumbled, "Well, I hope you have fun with it."

"Me? I just told you I got _you_ the last damn copy."

Keiko looked up, her eyes wide. "Wait... what? But... you have been looking forward to this game for... like... months!"

"Yeah, sure, but I have a lot of school I gotta do before winter, so I don't think I'd have much free time before then anyway. I'll just get one in the next wave or something." He smiled down at her and poked her nose. "Besides, with how much of a idiot you are, I'm sure that even if it takes six months, it'll only take a day or two for me to catch up."

Keiko punched him in the arm lightly, only eliciting a giggle from Sanso. "Oh shush. You watch, I'll be the best hero in the server by far! You'll be begging for the honor of kissing my boots!"

"Uh huh, I'm sure." He said. "Still, I'm a little surprised that such a big budget game with such a huge demand is only selling ten thousand copies initially."

Keiko leaned her head back against his chest, closed her eyes, and hummed to herself. "Server capacity, maybe?"

"That'd be a weird reason. I mean, standard MMOs can have several hundred thousand users online the first few days. Going away from that, other online games can have _millions_ online at the same time on the first few days. So why only ten thousand?"

Keiko shrugged, but this time she didn't provide an additional answer, content with simply leaning against Sanso's chest. Sighing as the smile on her face grew even larger, she felt Sanso's arm wrap itself around her back to support her better. After a few seconds, she felt his the hand on top of her head, softly petting and scratching her head through her hair.

" _Sanso and Keiko would be cute together though."_

Keiko's eyes flew open, leaping out of Sanso's lap, nearly tripping and falling on her face in the process. Straightening out her shirt and skirt, she looked at the floor in front of her. "A-a-a-a-anyway! I'm going to go load up the game into my Nervegear!" she said, walking straight for the door.

Just as she reached for the doorknob, she heard Sanso clear his throat. "Umm... Keiko? You forgetting something?"

Flinching, she turned around and looked up, seeing him waving the game around idly as he looked at her. Nodding she walked up to him and reached for the game. "Oh... yeah... thank you."

When she tried to take it, Sanso didn't let go immediately. Instead, he just held onto it, looking at her with furrowed brows. Keiko lowered her head, desperately trying to hide what had to be her face lighting on fire. She wasn't sure if she succeeded or not, only that Sanso eventually said, "Yeah... okay... have fun," and let go, letting her quickly make her way out of the room, through the hall, and into her own room.

Taking a deep breath, Keiko dropped her shoulder bag on the floor and flopped on her bad on the bed. With the game box in one hand, she folded her other arm over her eyes to block out the light of the room with the inside of her elbow. "Stupid Akane. Stupid Hitomi. Stupid Sakura. Stupid everyone. I'm not..." She lay on her bed for a while—exactly how long she wasn't sure. She simply let her mind clear as she focused on her breathing, feeling the cool air in her room fill her lungs.

Eventually, she got up and reached under her bed. Grabbing onto the box under there, she slid it out, opened it up, and, with a grunt, hefted her NerveGear onto her lap. She had to admit, the thing was much heavier than she had expected when she first got the thing—almost as heavy as her shoulder bag when it was filled with all her books. Granted, it wasn't like she was going to run around with the thing on, though the idea of her doing just that brought a smile to her face. Leaning over, she plugged the thing into the wall and turned it on, allowing it to have the minute or so to warm up. As it did that, she reached over to the other side of her bed and plugged another cable into the headset, this one coming from her computer. Standing up, she walked over to the computer and pressed the power button, waking it from its sleeping state, and waited for the two devices to get ready.

Finally, a green light lit up on the front of the NerveGear, signaling that it was ready for use. At the same time, her computer came up to the login screen, asking for her password. She plopped into the chair, typing her cat's name into the prompt, and the desktop screen greeted her. Unfortunately, the only thing she would be doing today was preparing the NerveGear for tomorrow. Opening the game box, she put the first of four game disks into the CD tray, closed it, and with a few clicks later, let the game download into her NerveGear.

As she did this, she busied herself with looking over the box and the rather large manual. Most of the first few pages were about starting up the game, which she made a note to read later. After that, the pages were filled with lore of the game world, which she also skipped over. Reading further, what caught her eye though was that of the options in the game, more specifically that there was a note that magic and bows were not in the game. "I thought Sanso said those things were standard for any fantasy game," Keiko muttered to herself as she turned the pages.

After the first few pages, she found herself no longer really reading anymore, instead looking at the artwork in the book. Pictures of gallant knights and sneaky thieves fighting were littered here and there in the book, with most of the pictures actually being of good quality, especially for a game book. She busied herself like this for a while longer, until she heard a ding from the computer. She set the book on her nightstand table, stood, and walked over to the computer. She set the next disk in, closed the tray, and watched as the install resumed.

With a grin, she grabbed a ruler off of the desk, spun around, and pointed it at a space in front of her. "Evil demon, your time has come," she whispered, puffing out her chest. With her left hand at her side, she grinned wider. "Any last words before you die?"

 _It is not I who will die today, Keiko the Great!_ she imagined him saying. _It is you!_

Keiko stepped forward chopping and jabbing at the air in front of her, stopping the ruler halfway through each attack as the imaginary demon blocked her every blow. "You are a fine warrior," she whispered again, moving her head to the side as she dodged a stab at her head, "but you are not nearly good enough to defeat me." With a last step forward she went to finish the monster with a last stab.

Her foot caught the strap of her shoulder bag, tangling her feet up. With a cry, she stumbled once, then fell over the bag, barely catching herself with her hands. Still, she fell roughly with a "thunk." Groaning, she sat up, her legs at her side as she rubbed her head. "Stupid bag, why are you in the middle of the room? I ought to—"

She heard the computer ding again.

Scrambling to her feet, Keiko ran over to the computer, ripped the disk out of the computer, then placed the third disk in. Soundly defeated by the demon earlier, she picked up the book again, looking at the rest of the pictures as she lett the entire game load up into her headset. Finally, the last two disks ejected itself from her computer, signaling that the entire process was done, and while she was still unable to play the game, she felt her chest swell from that step being done.

The rest of her evening went by in a sort of blur. She eventually came down to dinner, listening to mom, dad, and Sanso talk about their day while they ate. Keiko tuned in enough to give vague answers to mom and dad's questions about her own day, while noticing that Sanso was telling them some lie that he must have come up with about dealing with studying or something to further solidify why he didn't come home last night. Regardless, mom and dad apparently bought it, the two smiling and praising his studiousness as he finished. Keiko got up after they were done, did the dishes, and, with dad and mom sitting down to watch the news on the television and Sanso going to his room to do... something, she went to her own room to force herself to do the homework—especially the math section—that she had been assigned, lest she be forced to stay behind after school for disciplinary action. A couple hours later, when all her homework was done, she went to bed early, hoping that going to sleep would help her pass the time.

Sleep barely came to her that night, with the excitement over the game tomorrow filling her mind with a whirlwind of thoughts. Even when she finally _did_ get to sleep, her dreams were filled with nothing but swords and monsters and heroes. Like her daydream during class, she was clad in the brightest polished armor that was like a silvered mirror, her large height towering over man, woman, and monster alike, her jet black hair attracting the attention of the most attractive men around. So exciting were her dreams, that when her alarm woke her up the next morning, she must have been visibly upset, for mom had asked what was wrong. She nearly told mom that she was feeling sick so that she could stay home from school, but decided on just saying she was tired. Sure, while starting the game right at one o'clock at the time the server started sounded awesome, mom finding out she skipped school to play her video game was a fast way to forever lose said game.

Of course, she regretted that decision the moment her first class started and she started to daydream yet again about the same scene as yesterday afternoon. Thankfully, she wasn't called on to answer any questions—either that, or she was so distracted by her thoughts that not even the teachers could break her out of it. Of course, even with her daydreams passing the day, school felt like it had entered a different dimension, where time passed at a much, much, much slower rate than it was supposed to. It obviously had nothing to do with the fact that, whenever she broke out of her daydreams, she spent the entire time staring at the second hand of the clock. Worse yet, when the clock finally hit one o'clock, she couldn't help but to mentally whimper about how so many people were probably logging in right now, playing the game.

Thankfully, after what felt like a week, the last bell finally signaled it was two-thirty, her feet launching out the door immediately. She flew out of the room, barreling pasted a few classmates that were unfortunate enough to be in her way, and made her way through the hall. Only slowing down enough to make sure she didn't flash her underwear, she near literally jumped down the stairs, taking three or four at a time. Heck, she probably did expose herself, though she didn't see anybody around that might see. Taking only a few seconds to switch into her normal shoes, she slammed the door open and ran outside.

Just as she made her way to the front gate, she heard a familiar girl's voice cut through the chatter from behind her. "Keiko! Hang on! Stop running!"

For a split second, Keiko debated acting like she didn't hear Akane yelling for her and instead simply to continue running down the street towards the train station. After that split second, the more logical and sensible part of her mind won out, and she turned to her friend and said, "Hey Akane! I was surprised you got to the doors so quickly!" _Unfortunately_.

"Yeah, I saw you running down the stairs and I wanted to make sure that I caught you! What were you doing, training for the Olympics?"

"I... uhh..." Keiko shifted her eyes to the right, "...thought I saw Hitomi leaving, so I was trying to catch up with her so we could walk together!"

Akane blinked. "Isn't Hitomi in the same class as you in the last period? How would she be in front of you?"

Keiko raised her hands level to her shoulders as she shrugged. "It's _Hitomi._ For all I know, I really did see her and she's down the street right now. Hitomi's weird like that."

"Weird like how?" Hitomi said as she turned the corner and walked up to them, her bag slung over her shoulder. Sakura was next to her, her bag clasped in between her hands in front of her. Together, they walked through the growing crowd of students to make their way to the rest of their group of four. "And whatever they said, I swear it's a lie."

Keiko let out a giggle as she turned around and let out a quiet sigh as she started to make her way out of the school and towards the train station. Sure, she wouldn't get there as fast as she exactly wanted to—she was planning on running the entire way there—but she probably would only miss one train in between. Heck, if she was lucky she might still get on the same train anyway. Besides, it was only a few minutes that she would be missing.

Thankfully, she was going to have a few days off because of the weekend, which meant that for the next couple of days she had almost free reign to play to her heart's content. Sure, she had to get off to make sure that mom didn't freak out over her playing too many games—and possibly finding out what game she was playing in the process—but that still left plenty of time to play. Of course, if mom saddled her with a bunch of chores tomorrow as she sometimes did on weekends, then she might have herself a problem, but she'd deal with it the best way she could. Besides, even with that in her way, it still left her enough time to get herself situated within the game and become one of the top players in the game, if not _the_ top player!

Keiko smiled. _After all, a hero like myself won't stand for second best._

"Keiko!" A hand slapped itself on her shoulder, causing her to stumble a couple of steps forward.

"Huh? What?" Keiko shook her head as she looked at Hitomi.

Keiko heard Akane sigh from over her other shoulder. "I was asking you if you wanted to go shopping, maybe do some karaoke or something, and then sleep over at my place. My parents already said it's alright for me to have you all over for the night."

Her eye twitched ever so slightly, but she, hopefully, hid it from her friends well enough. "I would love to... but I can't. I mean... my mom has a lot of chores for me to do when I get home, plus... uhh... my brother said he had something planned for me later tonight or something. I... he didn't say what."

"Oh? Sanso has something planned for you?" Hitomi said, a touch of humor in her voice. "Maybe that does mean that—"

Keiko turned and glared at Hitomi. "No." Turning back to Akane, she continued. "But yeah, so I can't hang out this weekend. I'm really sorry!"

Akane sighed, but let a smile cover her face anyway. "No, it's fine. It was last minute plans anyway, so no worries!"

"Stinks to be you though," Hitomi said as she slung an arm over Keiko's shoulder. "While you're doing chores, we're going to be having a singing contest."

"Yeah, right." Akane rolled her eyes. "As if any of us could beat Sakura in a singing contest. I mean, with the way she is, I would be surprised to see her being a famous singer five years down the road."

Keiko could barely make out Sakura's voice behind her. "I won't forget the little people."

"Oh ho!" Hitomi said, peeling her arm off of Keiko and falling back to pull Sakura into a side-hug. "You best not, or these little people are going to tell everyone all your dirty secrets. Like that time where you—"

"Anyway," Keiko said, breaking away from the completely derailed conversation—an act Sakura better thank her for later. "Point is I can't make it this weekend, so I'll have to take a rain check." Looking to her left, she saw that they were already at the train station. "Anyway, I gotta get going! Akane, make sure to tell your mom I said hello and I'm sorry I couldn't make it!"

"Will do!" Akane said as she and the other two waved goodbye. "Make sure to do the same with yours!"

With that, Keiko turned around and ran to the station. Jumping up multiple steps at a time, she scanned her boarding pass, accidentally throwing it as she pulled it out of her bag, and dashed to the boarding platform. Jogging up to her spot, she took a glance at the schedule, and growled as she made a face.

"Of course I missed it by a minute," she said to herself as she took a seat near the back wall.

Closing her eyes, she easily lost herself into her thoughts and thought to what kind of character she was going to make. Every time she daydreamed, she saw herself as wielding a massive greatsword, similar to the heroic figures of medieval Europe might have wielded, or at least in the stories. Not only that, but she had been told by Sanso on more than one occasion that greatswords were typically the best weapon to go with in an MMO, so she'd trust him on that. Of course, even if that was the case, that wasn't to say that other weapons weren't going to be powerful! After all, if they were put into the game, they had to be viable in some sense!

The standard sword and shield combo that was a staple in any fantasy was also very "heroic looking." After all, there was something about panting a giant picture or symbol or whatever they were called on the shield and smashing it into a monster's face that just sounded cool. She could also go with a mace and shield, which was almost the same, but she'd assume slower and more damage, but still gave off heroism. A spear... well... she couldn't remember any heroes using spears, but they were pretty cool too! There weren't any bows or crossbows in the game, but even if there were, she wouldn't bother with any of those: a true hero didn't fight at range like a coward.

Keiko hummed to herself. "I wonder if you can have multiple characters..."

A few more minutes went by before the train arrived. Quickly walking up to the doors, and after letting the few passengers getting off at this stop disembark, she stepped into the train and found herself a spot to stand in. Now situated again, she once more let her mind wander, replaying the epic battle between her heroic figure and the evil orc army. Every time, she would play through the battle, but she couldn't quite find an ending to it all. No witty one liners, no cool signature moves, and definitely no flashy acrobatics or anything. Still, replaying it was just as fun as it was the first time she came up with the daydream.

Soon, she got to her stop. She made sure she was the first off the train and ran so fast through the streets she swore her feet never touched the ground. This time, however, when she got to her house, she didn't even bother waiting outside the door to hide her heavy breathing. Instead, she nearly ripped the door off its hinges and leaped into the house and up the stairs. She swore she heard her mom yell something from the living room, but it was drowned out by her feet thumping against the steps as she skipped every other step. Rounding the corner at the top of the stairs, she ran into her room, slammed the door shut, literally threw her bag away as she locked it, and booted up her NerveGear.

As she waited for the helmet to warm up, she went through the Sword Art Online book and looked at the _Preparing for Your Full Dive_ section in the front of the book. "Let's see," she read off to herself. "Before you complete your Full Dive experience with your NerveGear, it is recommended that you take a few steps to ensure that you come out of the experience as comfortable as possible.

"One, find a suitable location to relax during your Full Dive experience. Such a location should be large enough to comfortably lie on fully. The most recommended location would the the user's bed, but some users have commented that a hammock, large couch, or even the floor are preferred locations, so it is up to the user."

Keiko looked at her bed. "Check.

"Two, clear away any tripping hazards around the chosen location for your Full Dive experience. It is normal for users to express dizziness after coming out of a Full Dive, and it is highly advised to remove any object that may cause one to trip and fall." Setting down the book on the bedside table, she started picking up the few clothes that she still had on the floor, as well as the bag that she had just thrown a minute or two ago. It only took a minute's time before she stood back and admired the cleared floor. "Check!"

Picking the book back up, she continued. "Three, it is advised that one have some sort of snacks and beverage nearby. Since it is impossible to feel physical hunger or thirst while experiencing a Full Dive, many users have found themselves feeling hungry or thirsty afterward." Keiko nodded to herself, placed the book on the bedside table, and made her way back down the stairs. Not wanting to bother mom, she went to the kitchen, poured herself a glass of water, grabbed a granola bar, and went back up the steps without a word, relocking the door behind her. Finally placing the items next to the book on the table, she nodded. "Check!"

Picking up the book again, she paced as she read. "Four, it is recommended that the user wear nonrestrictive clothing while using their NerveGear. Doctors have stated that tight clothing can result in medical complications due to restricting blood flow. Recommended clothing consists of string-tie shorts left untied, tee-shirts, and other large and loose clothing. Unrecommended clothing consists of jeans, long pants, tight elastic pants, button up shirts, long-sleeve shirts, form-fitting clothing of any kind, watches or other jewelry, and any form of footwear."

Nodding, she put the book down again. Double checking to make sure the door was closed, she unbuttoned her skirt and let it drop. Stepping out of it, she unbuttoned her jacket and blouse, taking both off one after another. Reaching to her head, she undid the clips holding her hair in twintails. She paused for a moment before shrugging, reaching back behind her to undo the clasp of her bra, taking it off. Looking at the elastic on her underwear, she paused for a moment.

 _Yeah... that's probably fine._ She thought to herself. Quickly grabbing the clothes, she put them away so that the floor wouldn't be cluttered again. That done, she went to her dresser and pulled out one of Sanso's old tee-shirts, and pulled it over her head—the hem reaching just past mid thigh. "Check!"

She walked over to the table and read the book without picking it up this time. "Lastly, it is highly recommended that you let someone know that you are going into a Full Dive. While you are in a Full Dive experience, you will be completely unaware of anything going on within your surroundings. For safety reasons, having someone present that is able to manually remove you from the system in case an emergency situation arises is heavily advised." Keiko shrugged. "Sanso knows I'm going to play, so that's a final check!"

She set the book down on the bedside table one more time and placed herself on top of the bed. Pulling the hem of her shirt down under her butt, she picked up the NerveGear that she had set aside a while ago, and placed it on her head. Carefully, she lay onto her pillow, settling into it as she got herself comfortable. One last time she fixed the hem of her shirt to make certain she was adequately covered, then she took a deep breath, held it for a second, then released it.

With a smile, she said, "Link Start!"


	2. Chapter 2

Keiko found herself in a world of white as streams of colors flew towards her as if she were running through them. Suddenly, several blue colored circles started to appear in front of her, drawing her eyes each time they appeared. On every single one, she noticed they said "Please Focus Here" for a brief instant before they disappeared from her vision. After a short series of these were summoned then dismissed, a new set of these circles appeared in front of her eyes, saying things like "Smell" and "Taste" and other things she didn't really catch before they disappeared.

After what she swore was at least a minute of these blue circles appearing and disappearing, she saw a menu asking for the language. She frowned. _Wait, I thought everyone spoke in this game? Why would there be a language selector? And isn't the game only sold in Japan? Heck, isn't this all already in Japanese?_ Ignoring the thoughts, she went through the list and selected Japanese by, apparently, focusing on the word for a second. The language selected, the menu closed, then a new menu opened, prompting her to come up with a username and password. She just put in her name for her username and her cat's name for the password before selecting enter.

Finally the view turned dark, and she saw a male human-shaped figure appear before her. Smiling to herself, she had finally gotten to the best part about the login sequence: character creation. She already knew exactly what the character she was going to make was going to look like, it was just a matter of fiddling with the options now. Working her eyes, she got down to sculpting the character to her will. First up was the gender. For a brief moment, she was tempted to choose a man to be a big, muscular figure and be that much more imposing, but the thought of having a... well...

She blushed, selected the female option. and confirmed the decision.

The next thing she had to work on was the hair, which she sculpted into long and straight black hair that ran down all the way to the middle of her back. The face, however, caused her to pause. After all, she really didn't think too much about the details of the face itself while playing her daydream. Shrugging to herself—or as much as she could in the form she was in—she sculpted the face to look what she thought was somewhat pretty, with soft features, green eyes, and what was probably a normal-sized nose. After a little while of tinkering with the various options and sliders, she finally got what she thought was both a beautiful woman and a heroic figure.

Moving down the list of options, she went to the next slider and started to adjust the height. As she went to change it, a hint appeared. _Tip: making the height of your character similar to your actual height will make moving easier,_ Keiko read to herself. _What does that mean?_ Shrugging, she closed the tip and messed with the slider, giggling as she brought it to it's lowest setting: miniscule four feet. She immediately slid the bar all the way to the other end, seeing that it peaked at a gargantuan eight feet. She hovered over that option for a solid few seconds before she shook her head, and brought it down to six feet eleven inches.

After a few more sliders for things like hip size and shoulder width, she got to the first one that actually made her pause: bust size. Scrunching her brow, she fiddled with the slider, looking at how the size changed from one silly extreme to the other. Letting out a sigh, she closed her eyes and yanked the slider all the way to the right, making them as large as the game would let them. _I am so glad Hitomi doesn't play this game, or she'd never let me live this down,_ Keiko thought to herself. _Sanso will still going to laugh I'm sure, but whatever._

After adjusting the how muscular the character was—an option she put as looking somewhat athletic, but not bodybuilder big—she reviewed the character one last time, smiled, and accepted her selections. The screen then presented her with a request to come up with a name. Before she really thought otherwise, she typed in "Keiko," nearly confirming it before she froze. _Wait, Sanso said I shouldn't use my real name... or something._ Keiko wracked her mind for ideas, but none of of the cool fantasy names that she read or heard about in books or movies really felt right. A light bulb went off in her head, and she typed in not her name, but the inspiration her father had for her name: Silicon.

Frowning, she dropped the last two letters and typed in an A, before accepting the name Silica. _Much cuter!_

The screen went black for a second before five words appeared in front of her that got her heartbeat racing again: "Welcome to Sword Art Online!" A couple seconds later, the words faded into white and the rushing colors reappeared, this time taking on a much more blue hue and covering her entire vision. The colors swam in front of her for a few more seconds before she felt her vision go black... and weight on her feet. Her breath hitched for a moment before she looked down as she opened her eyes, and saw two leather boots on cobblestone.

Blinking twice, she raised her right foot, watching as the foot's movement matched what she was telling it to do. Definitely belonged to her. She slowly repeated the process with the other. Also definitely belonged to her. A even wider smile broadening across her face, she lifted her feet again, watching as each one responded to her movements, feeling how the sock inside brushed against her toes and how the hard leather restricted her foot, and hearing the "thunk" of the boots on the stone. Slowly, she lifted her arms in front of her, squeezing and releasing her fingers in the air. She took a deep breath breath, her eyes widening as she smelled the faint smell of the living city around her.

A bubbly feeling swelling inside of her, she screamed out, "This is awesome!"

She heard a few chuckles and a few cheers in reply from some people that were apparently around her, Keiko herself blushing as she let out a small laugh. Looking at the rest of herself, she saw that she was wearing what must have been the starting gear. It was... well... it was what she should have expected from a fantasy game. All she wore was a red outfit that appeared to be a cross between a tunic and a dress, with her shoulders completely exposed and the hem of the skirt just above mid thigh—higher than any of the skirts she owned. A belt around her waist seemed to serve no more purpose than to show off her slender waist, though she was sure that when she got some gear that would change. On her feet, a pair of leather boots that looked more similar to shoes covered what she felt was a pair of socks. Aside from that, and the fact that her breasts were _way_ bigger than she expected them to be, she could see nothing on her that was of real note.

Keiko slapped a fist into her open palm in front of her and nodded. "Right! First thing to do is get some armor and a weapon!" With that, she started walking towards where she hoped was the market.

She fell right on her face.

She stayed laying face-down for a few second before muttering, "Ow." Shifting her weight, she moved to a sitting position and, with a face as red as her outfit, looked around to see if anyone had seen her brilliant display of coordination. Unfortunately, a few people looking in her direction and laughing hinted at some bad news. Keiko sighed and muttered, "First thing this hero does is fall on her face. Truly a legend of the ages."

Slowly, she stood up and wobbled on her feet. After waiting a few seconds, she tried to walk again, this time much more mindful of the steps she was taking. For the second time, she tripped, only just keeping some of her dignity by falling to her knees. "It's like I'm wearing stilts," she groaned. She paused, then shook her head. "Maybe this is what that tip at character creation meant, huh?" It took a few minutes, and several close calls, but after after more than a handful of false starts, she slowly started walking. She probably looked less like a graceful hero and more like that one time Sanso came home reeking of booze and vomit after he hung out with his friends, but she was moving forward.

Stumbling along one of the main roads extending from the main plaza, she gazed and listened to the sights and sounds the best she could. To each side, two long strips of buildings flanked her, with each building housing three to five shops before a narrow alleyway signaled the start of a new chain of buildings. Each structure was made of eggshell-colored bricks, with most being at least two stories tall, though many more were three or four. The roofs varied in colors, ranging from red to a darker brown to even as light as white itself, but the vast majority shared the trait of being flat-topped with shallow and, most likely, decorative battlements spaced regularly along most of them. In the distance, there were a few buildings that had domed roofs, with a few pointed-roofed towers here and there to break it up. All in all, it reminded her of a Middle Eastern city that she saw in pictures in history class... but less sandy.

The road itself was very different from what she was used to in the real world. Instead of a street with lanes for cars and distinct sidewalks on either side for pedestrians, the road was just one long bricked surface, with only the occasional fountain or greenery breaking up the stonework. Yet, people walking along had taken to organizing themselves well enough, creating "lanes" of sorts to walk past each other. All along the very edges of the road, various shops and tables and other things were strewn out, narrowing the road slightly. Add in the people that were stopped in front of the shops and even in the middle of the road, and the very wide highway looked almost like it was part of a theme park of sorts.

Keiko smiled. "Well, I guess this place is sorta like a theme park."

Those words said, she focused her eyes on the stores on either side of the road that sold the equipment she was looking for. Muttering to herself her very short shopping list, she strolled down the street at a slow pace, taking in each shop. Of all the places she saw, almost a full two-thirds were different places to eat or sleep. The rest varied wildly, from shops to buy random items to sitting areas to even some places that were completely closed up. In every case—with the obvious exception of the boarded up stores—every one was filled with people browsing or eating or doing whatever else they might want to do at their chosen location.

Two minutes later, and Keiko's eyes lit up as she spotted her target: a weapon and armor shop. Immediately, she turned and made her way through the crowded road. After almost falling over only another two or three times as she bumped into several people, she squeezed through the crowd and made it inside. Surprisingly, especially considering it was the first day, she found the place to be quite empty, with only herself and two others browsing the items in stock. Shifting her attention away from those people, she took in the wares themselves. Apparently the items near the door were various sets of armor while, hopefully, the weapons were most likely deeper in the store.

Focusing more on the wares, she inspected each with the pieces, or at least as much as she could with her untrained eyes. Near the door, sets of leather suits and chainmail shirts lined the walls, each with different designs and levels of grace in them. For most... well... even Keiko could tell that the quality could be considered nothing more than crude craftsmanship... and that was being generous. Trash at the worst However, here and there, she gleamed on a piece that she could tell looked like it was crafted like a true master, or at least they looked prettier. One such piece in particular drew her eyes for almost a full minute. The small silver breastplate looked sturdy enough, with the entire thing looking like one piece. However, on the front, a large golden eagle with flared wings was placed, giving the piece a much more regal look. All in all, it looked magnificent and appeared sturdy enough to turn aside any blade.

Keiko turned her eyes to the left and immediately all of those other pieces of scrap metal left her mind. The suit of armor that she saw hanging on the mannequin in front of her could be called nothing but breathtaking. Reminiscent of images of European medieval knights, the suit was completely made up of polished metal plates meant to cover nearly the entire body. The only places that the large, red armor plates didn't cover were limited to the joints and the back of the thighs, for which she'd guess was for actually allowing the user to move. Those places, however, were covered with chainmail, which still provided considerable protection. Black trim was colored on each of the various edges of the gauntlets, boots, greaves, and the spaulders, highlighting each vividly. On the front of the chestpiece, a golden roaring lion's head extended slightly from the armor.

She smiled. "It's perfect."

Of course, there was the fact that, while she knew what armor to get, she had no idea _how_ to get it. Turning away from her prize, she did the first thing that she normally did when she got confused in a store: ask for help. Carefully pushing past a shorter girl, she made her way towards the counter. Towering over the man that looked to be writing in a notebook or something, Keiko said, "Umm, excuse me."

The man turned his head and looked up at her. "Hello, Adventurer. What can I get for you?"

Keiko smiled down at him. "Yes. Umm, I was wondering if I could get that suit of armor on the mannequin," she said as she pointed down the hall behind her. "The one with the lion on the chest."

The man stood still for a few seconds, then replied, "I'm sorry, ma'am, but I'm not sure which item you mean. If you know what you are going to purchase, please choose the option on the list."

She was about to try to explain when suddenly a floating, matte-colored screen appeared in front of her. She gasped and took a step back, nearly tripping over her feet as she did. As she looked at the screen, she saw that it was a list of various suits of armor that were apparently for sale in the shop, ordered alphabetically and showing their prices. Unfortunately, the list was incomplete, only showing about ten pieces, and her plate armor definitely wasn't on it. Frowning, she peek past the menu and said, "Mister, the armor I want isn't on this."

The man stood still for another few seconds, then said, "I'm sorry, ma'am, but I'm not sure which item you mean. If you know what you are going to purchase, please choose the option on the list."

Keiko sighed and ran her hand through her hair. _And I thought Iwoa was dumb._ "No, listen to me, I don't know what the suit of armor is called and the armor isn't on the list you are showing me, now can you help me out or what?"

For the third time, the man stood still, then said, "I'm sorry, ma'am, but I'm not sure which item you mean. If you know what you are going to purchase, please choose the option on the list."

Groaning now, she pinched the bridge of her nose and started counting to ten. However, before she could even get to four, someone tapped her on her lower back. "You having a problem, Big-Sis?"

Keiko turned around and looked down at the person who asked the question. The girl was short, standing at what she guessed was about four and a half feet, which would put her at shorter than Keiko herself was in real life. Proportional to her height, the girl was slender, probably not even approaching a hundred pounds. Her red hair was tied into a bun with a single ribbon and her outfit was almost identical to Keiko's own, with the only real difference being that it was green rather than Kieko's red color. On top of said outfit, the girl was wearing a pretty worn looking leather chestpiece, which covered just her chest and sides. At the girl's right hip, a small orange-handled mace hung at her belt.

"Uh," Keiko started, blinking at the girl that barely came up to her lower chest. "Kinda. This guy is an id... umm... he doesn't understand what I'm saying."

The girl giggled. "Of course not, silly sissy. He's just an NPC."

Keiko slightly cocked her head. "A what?"

"An NPC!" the girl said as she nodded, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. She looked at Keiko for a few seconds longer before narrowing her eyes. "You're new to games like this, aren't you?"

Keiko winced. "That obvious?"

Giggling again, the girl reached up to apparently pat Keiko on the head. Even on her tip toes, she didn't quite reach though, so instead patted Keiko on the upper arm. "Only because I saw you treating the NPC super silly serious-like! Say, maybe little me can help Big-Sis out? I know a thing or two about cute clothes!"

Biting her lip, Keiko looked over towards the armor she wanted. "Maybe. I was trying to buy some armor, but I'm not sure how."

"Oh that's easy-peasie!" The girl jumped forward and looped her arms around Keiko's left arm, pulling her along. "Come on come on! Show me which one!"

Nodding, Keiko pulled ahead of the girl and brought her to the suit of armor that she had picked out. "This one. It's perfect."

The previous giggles that the girl was letting out was replaced with a full-blown laugh. "Oh Big-Sis, you're so funny! You _are_ new to these sort of games!"

Pulling her arm out from the girl's grip, she her face heating up. "W-what!? What do you mean by that! This is a perfectly good set of armor! Better than anything else in here!"

Laughing a little more, the girl wiped her eye with a finger. "Oh I'm sure it is, however, I'm sure it's waaaaaaaay too expensive for Big-Sis to buy!"

"How... how can you be sure?" Keiko questioned as she looked at the armor again, a frown forming on her face.

"Well, everyone starts with one thousand Col, and... well..." the girl tapped the armor, then nodded. "Yeah, just touch it to see for yourself."

Raising an eyebrow, she reached out with her right hand and touched the armor. Suddenly, another one of those matte screens appeared in front of her. Among other things, such as the armor value, was the price. "Thirty thousand!?"

"Yeppies!" the girl exclaimed as she reattached herself to Keiko's left arm again and pulled her away from it. "Here, I'll help Big-Sis out! Think of it as my super cute gift for you!"

The two walked closer to the entrance of the shop, until Keiko saw that they were standing in front of the leather armor that she had dubbed "trash" a few minutes ago. The girl next to Keiko let go of her arm to take a closer look at them, poking at a select few pieces hanging on the wall as she hummed to herself. For how bubbly and giggly the girl was earlier, the serious look that was painted on the girl's face now was... well it definitely gave Keiko a case of whiplash.

Finally, the girl grabbed onto Keiko's left wrist, and forced her hand towards a particular leather piece. "This one, this one! It's perfect!"

Her finger touching the armor, she looked at the screen that appeared in front of the armor. Reading the name _Crude Leather Chestpiece_ to herself, she skipped by a lot of the information until she got to the price. "four hundred sixty Col," Keiko said to herself.

"Yep! It's the same thing I'm wearing right now!" the girl cheered as she stepped away from Keiko and did a quick little spin to let her skirt flair out, then rapped her knuckles on the hardened leather.

Still, Keiko couldn't help but to frown. "Is there really nothing... better?"

"Oh Big-Sis, if you're just thinking about how it looks, don't!" the girl said as she, for the third time in three minutes, wrapped herself around Keiko's arm. "Don't worry about how it looks on the wall. It'll look super-duper adorable on you! Besides, you'll get better gear soon for sure!"

Keiko nodded. _The girl does seem to know what she's doing. I guess it couldn't hurt to trust her._ Looking down a the girl, she replied. "Okay. Now, what about a weapon?"

The girl smiled brightly, her white teeth showing as she started to pull Keiko along to the other side of the shop. "So, what kind of weapon were you thinking of using, hmm?" The girl paused to size her up, then said, "Something big?"

Keiko nodded again. "I was thinking a two-handed sword of some kind."

"Hmm. Well, I don't think you can afford a greatsword for five hundred Col, so we'll have to compromise on that one for now!" The girl walked over to a small section with lots of swords of various shapes and sizes before touching a shorter one. Immediately, she started bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Look look! This one!"

Keiko let a smile spread across her face as she touched the weapon. _Crude Iron Broadsword_. Looking down, she smiled. "Four hundred Col."

"Here!" the girl said as she picked the sword off of the wall. Nearly dragging the thing over to Keiko, she placed the sword into Keiko's waiting hands. "Try it out! Just no swinging around: don't wanna destroy the aisle or anything, ya know?"

Nodding, she took the weapon in her hand and held it up. It felt much lighter than she expected, or at least it was weighted well. Despite what the girl had advised her, she took a few short practice chops, the blade easily responding to every move she made. Smiling wider, she said, "I like it."

"Of course you do, because I picked it out for you!" the girl said. Grabbing onto her arm again, the girl dragged Keiko towards the counter. "Now buy the things and you're all good to go!"

It didn't take long for Keiko to take care of her purchases, though she did forget the name of her chosen armor and had to go back and double check the name, much to the girl's amusement. However, when all was said and done, Keiko found herself walking out of the shop with a new set of armor, a new weapon, and a much slimmer wallet. Sighing, Keiko turned to the girl that walked out with her and bowed slightly. "Thanks for all your help... umm..." Keiko frowned as she stood back up fully. "Actually, I don't think I caught your name."

The girl giggled and rocked on her feet. "I guess I never did tell you, did I?" Sticking out her hand, she beamed wider. "The name's Lolipop!"

 _Weird name._ Keiko took Lolipop's hand and shook it. "Keiko."

"Nice to meet-cha, Big-Sis Keiko!" Lolipop put her hands behind her and cocked her head to her left. "Say, you don't know how to fight and all, right?"

Keiko folded her arms in front of her. "And what makes you think that I don't know how to fight?" Lolipop just looked at her, her features remaining all the while. A few seconds passed, then Keiko let her arms drop and she hung her head. "Okay, so I don't know the fine details behind sword-fighting, but I'm pretty sure I can figure it out, no sweat."

Lolipop grinned. "I'm sure I'm sure, but just in case, come on, Big-Sis Keiko! I'll show you the ropes!"

With that, Lolipop grabbed Keiko's hand and started to literally drag her through the streets of the city. The small girl used her small stature to weave in between people in the crowd, pulling the much much larger Keiko along with her. Apologizing to the dozens of people she was dragged into, and getting more than a couple glares in her direction in retaliation, she was led further and further away from the center of the city. More than once she called out to Lolipop to slow down or stop in general as Keiko stumbled over her feet, but whether Lolipop didn't hear her or just simply didn't care, Keiko didn't know.

Finally, the pair made it through the large city gates and out into the fields just outside the walls. She thanked whatever god was looking down on her, for while the grassy hills outside the walls had an abundance of people all over, there were not the larger crowds that were in the city itself, allowing the two to be free from crashing into people every other second. Still, Lolipop dragged Keiko onward for a few more minutes until they were in an area by themselves, the city now a fair distance away.

Finally, Lolipop let go of Keiko's wrist and turned around to face her. "Okay! Here we are!"

Keiko rubbed her wrist as she looked around. "And where is here?"

Giggling again, Lolipop spread her arms and spun around slowly. Looking around, Keiko saw that she was on the top of a large grassy hill with what looked like large pigs all around her. With a sing-song voice, Lolipop said, "Why, we're at your training grounds, Big-Sis Keiko!"

Keiko looked around at the pigs. " _This_ is my training ground?"

"Yeppies!"

"Fighting a bunch of pigs?"

Lolipop shrugged. "Technically they're boars, but you gotta start somewhere. Here." Waving her hand in the air in front of herself, Lolipop appeared to manipulate her menu in front of her. A few seconds later, a menu appeared in front of Keiko.

"Party?" Keiko said as she raised an eyebrow.

"Think of it like a team or something."

Nodding, Keiko tapped the accept button with her finger, and suddenly a new health bar in her vision appeared, showing Lolipop's name and health.

"Silica?" Lolipop mumbled to herself, barely audible to Keiko. Eyes widening slightly, she said louder, "Wait a second, you're name is Silica?"

Keiko raised an eyebrow. "Huh? Oh yeah, my character name is Silica."

"Wait, then why are you calling..." the little girl trailed off. Closing her eyes, she continued in a much lower tone. "Where did you get the name Keiko?"

If it could, Keiko's eyebrow would've raised itself higher. "That's my name. I mean, you asked me what my name was."

"Ugh." Lolipop lowered her head and covered her closed eyes with a hand. All of the liveliness of her voice from before was gone. Instead, Keiko swore Lolipop growled out the next words. "Look, K... Silica, you can't be telling people your real name like that."

"Y... you can't?"

"No you can't. You aren't supposed to tell people about your personal info, like your real name or address or phone number or _anything_ like that." Sighing to herself, Lolipop opened her eyes and looked at Keiko with a chastising glare. "You're first name isn't too bad, I guess, but the other stuff could get you in real trouble if you tell the wrong people. Seriously. Understand?"

Keiko took a step back, her mouth a little dry. "Y-yeah. Okay."

"Good." As soon as the word left Lolipop's mouth, her cheery demeanor returned and she giggled. "Okay then, Big-Sis K... err... Silica, let's see what you got! Equip your gear and go 'bring home the bacon!'"

Nodding, Keiko navigated her menu, finding the equipment section and equipping her sword and armor. As she selected each, she noticed that each materialized on her body. The iron broadsword at her left hip and affixed to the belt that was already around her waist. Covering the weapon, a leather sheathe kept the weapon's blade safe inside from regular wear and tear. Materializing on top of her tunic, the leather chestpiece rested on her shoulders and gripped her chest slightly. It was an interesting feeling, for while she could feel the weight of the weapon and the restricting tension of the armor, it didn't actually hinder her movements all that much.

"Ooh! Big-Sis Silica is looking cool now!" Lolipop said, nodding and giving two thumbs up.

Rolling her eyes, Keiko brushed a lock of onyx hair behind her ear and drew her weapon. "Yeah yeah, now let's go kill a bo-GAH!"

Keiko didn't make it two steps before she tripped over her own two feet again and fell face first into the hill.

Hearing Lolipop's very loud laughter from behind her, Keiko did her best to sit back up with all the dignity and grace of a true knight. Grabbing her sword back in her right hand, she stood back up to her feet and brushed off the skirt of her tunic. "I meant to do that."

Through the bouts of laughter, Lolipop barely got out, "Yeah... yeah... sure."

Sighing to herself, Keiko shook her head, toned out the laughter, and looked around the area to find a suitable target. Seeing a boar right in front of her on top of a hill, she took a deep breath, released it, and shifted the grip of her weapon. Making sure she was more careful with her feet this time, she approached it at a light jog and she noticed some green bar thing appear above the boar's head. She ignored it and, as soon as she got close, lifted her sword arm in the air, let out a war cry—or at least she hoped it sounded like one—and swung with all her might.

She fell short by at least two feet and, off balance, stumbled, running into the boar.

Bouncing backwards off of the boar's hide, she lost what remained of her balance and found herself back on the ground. Fortunately, this time she only fell to her butt. Unfortunately, the boar that she completely failed to even come close to hitting with her sword, but completely succeeded in hitting with the rest of her body, turned around and glared at her.

Keiko gulped. "Umm... hi there?"

Apparently not a friendly boar willing to talk things through, it charged at her, slamming into her chest before she had the chance to get back up. Surprisingly, the shocking pain she was anticipating never came, but the force of the impact still threw her backwards. Keiko found herself tumbling down the hill she had just climbed, coming to a stop after at least five rolls. Keiko landed back onto her butt to see that the boar, apparently not finished with her, scraped its hoof into the ground and snorted. Before Keiko could stand or do anything, it charged once again.

Not able to stand in time, Keiko rolled to the side, dodging the boar by so little she could feel the wind on her legs as it passed. Rolling an extra few times, she stopped and got herself so that she was on her hands and knees. Now on all fours, she looked up to see that the boar had already stopped, turned around, and was now facing her again as it once again scraped a hoof against the ground. Almost as soon as the two locked eyes, the boar let out a loud snort as it tore towards her. Keiko wasn't able to react in time this time, and felt was only barely able to lean back on her knees and put her sword in front of her face before the boar slammed into her, throwing her backwards with the force.

Somehow, Keiko was able to find her footing this time, landing in a crouch facing the boar. Looking up to the corner of her screen, she saw that the boar had taken away a small bit of health, but it still looked like at least a quarter. She grinned. _Alright, time for the counterattack!_ she thought to herself as she stood up, raised her sword, and—

It was then that Keiko realized she did not have a sword in her hand.

She could feel a lead weight drop into her stomach. With widening eyes, she looked back up at the boar in front of her. Swallowing heavily, she looked back and forth in the grass for any sign of the lost weapon, but no matter where she looked, she couldn't find any sign of it. After only three seconds of looking, she saw the boar lower itself slightly, snort, and charge at her.

She crouched down, covered her head with her hands, and screamed.

Keiko heard a loud "thunk" in front of her, but the impact of the boar never came. After a couple more seconds, she peeked out in between her forearms to see two tiny legs in front of her. At some point, Lolipop had gotten in between Keiko and the boar and, apparently, smacked it away with her mace.

Not even pausing for a heartbeat, Lolipop charged at the boar, Keiko now noticing that it had been smacked backwards a few feet by the blow. Before the animal could reorient itself, Lolipop raised her mace, the head glowing with a bright blue glow. Then, she slammed the mace into its head with a diagonal strike, almost smashing the boar's head into the dirt. Following up the swing, she the small girl twisted her wrist around and threw out an upward strike that caught the boar in the jaw, flinging the creature into the air and several feet away. The boar landed on its side, twitched for a few seconds, then exploded into polygons.

Lolipop turned around and ran back towards Keiko, a frown on her face as she knelt down next to her. Placing a hand on Keiko's cheek, Lolipop softly said, "You okay?"

Slowly, Keiko nodded.

Lolipop, looked deeper into her eyes. "You sure?"

Again, she nodded. "Y... yeah."

Lolipop nodded once. "Good. Anyway," she said as stood and reached a hand towards Keiko, "I'm not going to lie, that was pretty bad, Big-Sis Silica."

Taking the hand, Keiko stood back to her feet, her legs still a little wobbly and her breathing still somewhat rapid. "H-hey! This is the first time I've done this!"

"I can see that, silly," the little girl said as she turned and walked away from Keiko. Bending over, Lolipop bent down and picked up Keiko's lost broadsword with her empty hand. Facing her again, Lolipop threw the weapon towards Keiko. "First lesson, don't drop your weapon."

Keiko went to catch it, but didn't quite get a grip and instead dropped it into the grass, eliciting a giggle from her impromptu teacher. Sighing, she bent down. "Right right, got it. Don't drop the sword."

As Keiko stood, she watched Lolipop face another nearby boar. Lolipop continued by saying, "Lesson two, when fighting, don't just throw yourself at the baddie. Since you only have a one-handed weapon right now, take a stance like this." The girl shifted her body so her right shoulder was facing the boar, the weapon at a slight upward angle in front of her. Meanwhile, her left arm was somewhat resting to the left side, Keiko assuming that it would help with her balance. Lolipop lowered her stance by bending her knees, but kept her back completely straight. "That way, you can quickly attack the enemy without moving too much, but you can also parry and block any attacks that come if you need to.

"Then... when you're ready..." Lolipop suddenly dashed forward and raised her mace. For the second time, the weapon glowed bright blue for a second, then smashed down on the boar's head. Following through, the girl looped the mace around and finished with a right horizontal attack, smashing into the animal's head again. The boar staggered back, slumped down, then exploded into a flurry of polygons. The girl smiled and faced Keiko, relaxing and placing her mace on her shoulder. "Just like that."

"R... right." Keiko muttered as she looked around, finding another boar nearby. She started to imitate what her teacher just said, placing her right shoulder forward, crouching slightly and straightening her back. The stance felt all kinds of awkward, but if this is what Lolipop said to do, it was best to do it. "And then... when I'm ready..."

Keiko jumped forward—only stumbling slightly, and gave a hard chop at the boar.

It was not nearly as clean of a hit as Lolipop did before, but it was infinitely more effective than the previous attack that Keiko threw out. For starters, the attack actually landed and dealt damage, leaving a large red gash in the animal's side. Even with her left hand to keep her balance, the weight of the sword swing nearly threw her off balance, allowing the boar enough time to recover from the previous swing. The boar turned towards Keiko and, with a loud snort, jumped towards her to strike her with its tusks.

She jumped away, barely dodging the majority of the boar's thrust in the hasty retreat, though she still felt a tusk lightly cut into her side. Gritting her teeth, she brought her sword back up and leveled it to the boar's face, and did a quick jab at it, scratching it along its cheek. Before the boar could react, she pulled her weapon up and threw another chop at the boar, throwing the animal further off balance. Grimacing, she stepped forward with her left foot, gripped the sword with both hands, and chopped into the animal like she was a lumberjack.

"Rahh!" She cried out as she chopped the boar, until she swore the thing's head should've come off. Suddenly, the animal burst into a million polygons, her sword crashing into the grass underfoot. Panting, she wiped her brow and turned towards Lolipop. Leaning on the sword still planted in the ground, she smiled. "So... how was that?"

"Hmm..." Lolipop hummed as she tapped her lips with a finger. A few seconds later leveled her hand in front of herself and, with her fingers splayed out, wagged her wrist. "Meh?"

"Meh!?" Keiko pulled the sword out of the grass and made her way towards her teacher. "What do you mean 'meh!?'"

Lolipop tapped her lips again for a second before speaking. "Well, for starters, you nearly tripped at the beginning of the entire thing again, throwing off your first attack. Second, because you put too much into that attack, you didn't have time to block the boar's own. I'll give you that the dodge was alright, but your followup stab was... well... lackluster? A broadsword is mostly meant for swinging attacks, but even then the stab was off target. Lastly, those chops at the end were completely bad form—if that boar had recovered at all you would've been caught flat-footed."

Keiko blinked a few times before she pointed behind her. "Hey! I killed it though! And with only a scratch on me!"

"And that's why I said it was 'meh' rather than me being forced to save you then laughing again, silly!" Lolipop teased, sticking her tongue out. "Still, I think with a little work, we can get all of those things cleaned up, especially that stumbling thing of yours! However, before anything, I gotta give you a bit of advice: 'Don't think. Act!'"

Keiko blinked. "Huh? I thought thinking was important in a fight."

"No. Well, yes, but also no." Lolipop scratched her chin. "Okay, thinking about your next action and the action after that is fine, but don't go crazy with it. If you think too much, you start second guessing yourself, and if you do that, you start wasting time! Time that could be the difference between beating that big bad boar, and a quick trip back to town via a respawn.

"So remember, big sis Silica: 'Don't think. Act!'"

Kieko slowly nodded. "Right... don't think. Act."

Lolipop clapped her hands together. "Perfect! Okay! So, now that that's out of the way, best start working on simple things, like the Sword Skills! Then we can—"

"Hey, I have a question, Lolipop." Keiko interrupted a thought crossing her mind. "What was that green thing above the boars?"

Lolipop cocked her head. "Green thing? Whatever do you mean, silly sissy?"

"It was... like... a green bar or something? It think it got red at some point, but it was green most of the time."

The cheery smile adorning her teacher's face dropped in a flash. "You... you mean... oh gosh," she stumbled over her words and slapped her face. "Okay, never mind working on Sword Skills, I think I need to explain a few of the more... basic things first..."

For a long length of time, Keiko was lectured by Lolipop on a vast assortment of topics that the girl insisted she "needed to know or she'd die, like, a million-bazillion times." At first, it was merely things that related to the overlay and the menu, including that green bar that ended up being the health bar of monsters—Keiko felt her face flush when she heard the answer to _that_ question. After that, it was a flurry of subjects ranging from how to stand when in combat, how to swing her sword, and even things like weapon durability and attributes.

Of course, the best part about this entire tutoring session was the practical application, as the screen she was seeing right now was proving. "Alright! Level three!" Keiko yelled out, holding her hand palm-up towards Lolipop.

An equally large grin on her face, Lolipop jumped up and slapped her hand against Keiko's. "Nice! Two levels on the first day is awesome, Big-Sis Silica!"

"Yeah, I know! And it only took me..." Keiko trailed off as she opened her menu to look at the time, "...umm... is the time on the game clock the same as Japanese Standard Time?"

"Hmm? I think so. Why?" Lolipop asked as she started touching thin air, apparently checking the menu herself. A second later, all the color washed out the girl's face. "It's past five already!? Oh shit!"

The curse brought Keiko's eyes to look down on her teacher. "Yeah, why? What's up? Your parents got something planned or something?"

"Oh no no no. Worse." Lolipop swallowed heavily and rubbed her cheek. "Oh man, Yuuki is going to kill me."

Keiko tilted her head. "Yuuki?"

"Yeah, my wife. She told me that we were supposed to go shopping—"

"Wait, your _wife_!?" Keiko sized the questionably-little girl up and down. "Uh... you have a wife?"

Lolipop took a second to glance at Keiko. "Yep."

"I... see..." Keiko trailed off, still looking up and down at the definitely-not-so-little girl's figure.

"Man, she's going to kill me. Anyway," Lolipop pressed at the air a few times before a message appeared in front of Keiko's face. "Here, friend me so we can meet up later!"

Keiko eyed Lolipop for another second before she turned her focus to the screen. _Does hanging out with a girl at least half his age in a game like this count a crime?_ Another two seconds later, Keiko shrugged and touched the button to accept the request.

"Awesome! Anyway, Big-Sis, sorry I couldn't teach you those Sword Skills." Lolipop waved with one hand as she opened up her menu again. "I hope to see you later tonight, or maybe tomorrow if you aren't on!"

Keiko gave a single wave. "Yeah, talk to you later."

Spinning around, Keiko started walking back towards the city walls. In all honesty, now that she was done with the training, she wasn't sure if—

"Huh."

Stopping in her tracks, Keiko twisted to look back at Lolipop. "'Huh?'"

"Yeah, 'huh.' The logout button isn't here."

"Uh, you sure you looking at the right place?" Keiko asked as she opened up her own menu. Poking around a few buttons for a few seconds, the furrowed her brow. "Yeah... I don't see it either. Maybe a glitch?"

Lolipop snorted with a half grin. "Pretty big one if you ask me." A few seconds later and Lolipop sighed. "Aaand I can't even call a GM. Great."

Keiko shrugged again. "Maybe they disabled it because so many people are are calling about it?"

"Maybe. Either way, it's a pretty dumb bug. You'd think that's the first thing the developers would make sure is working." Sighing, Lolipop rubbed her face with both hands. "Well, Yuuki finds me still logged in, she'll probably just—"

Whatever else Lolipop was going to say was cut off when the not-girl disappeared in a pillar of light. After a couple seconds Keiko checked her friend's list to see the lone contact, Lolipop, with the status of being offline. A small smile growing on her face, she turned around and muttered to herself. "Wife must have yanked him. Bet she's mad."

Once again walking back towards the city walls—now free of constant stumbles—she thought to what she wanted to do. To be honest, she was debating whether to log out with Lolipop, but considering there was no logout button, that plan died as soon as she thought it. Likewise, the idea to continue fight boars was something that sounded interesting, but she was starting to feel the hunger and fatigue that several hours of fighting brought with it. _Does that mean I'm hungry or tired in real life? Wait... am I considered sleeping right now? Do I need to sleep later tonight, or does this count?_

She shook her head, clearing the thoughts out. Regardless of all of that, she could use some sort of food right now, and with the money she got from the boars—along with whatever leftovers she had from her starting money—she must have had enough for something good. Though, what to get was a good question. "Should I get something fancy and treat myself, or something simple and save money for better gear? Hmm..." she trailed off as she neared the city gates. "Well, I _did_ work a lot today, and it is my money, so why shouldn't I be allowed to treat myself? Right?" No answer forthcoming from anyone—not like she was expecting one anyway—she nodded her head. "Right!"

A few minutes later, Keiko found herself on a familiar street with people still clogging the road itself. Mentally chastising herself for not paying attention the first time she walked through, she slowly made her way down the road, looking to both sides to check out all the stores that might serve something appetizing. Her character's height giving her a distinct advantage, she was able to see over most of the people on the streets to see that the vast majority of stores in this area of town were either empty or not serving food. Still, looking ahead, she thought she noticed a bakery. _Yeah... I can treat myself with a cake or something for dinner... it's not like mom can stop me or—_

Suddenly, she was stopped by a loud gonging of a massive bell of some sort. Not stopping her walking, she looked around, to try and find where it came from. However, before she could find anything, her entire field of vision was awash with a bright light, stopping her in her tracks. The next moment, she found herself somewhere completely different. In fact, from the looks of it, many of the other players were finding themselves in the same situation, for white pillars of light were appearing by the dozens, bringing more and more players into what she now noticed to be the beginning plaza she initially logged in at, the large bell tower in the center being the object ringing out. Feeling someone bump into her, she looked around to see the place quickly getting crowded. "What's going on?" She asked herself, hearing the same phrase being repeated by many of the people around her. "Are they making an announcement about that logout button thing?"

After what must have been the entire player-base appeared, the bell stopped, leaving a soft, low-toned noise playing intermittently above her. Turning her gaze up, she peeked over the heads of everyone in front of her and noticed an artificial red message blinking across the otherwise natural looking sunset sky. Squinting her eyes, she tried to read what was typed on it.

"Warning?" she whispered to herself.

As soon as the words left her lips, that same hexagonal message started to spread all across the sky, flooding the plaza with a red glow. Flinching, she heard a few people yelp or cry out in shock or fear over the messages. The moment that the entire sky was filled with the messages, something... blood-like started to flow out from in between a few of the first ones to appear, gathering in the air near the far edge of the plaza, the blood pooled together, crackling with electricity, then started to shift and change it's shape from a sphere into a faceless, black and red robed figure the size of a building.

Keiko swallowed, totally and completely not nervous in the slightest.

A few seconds after the figure was fully formed, it raised it's white-gloved hands to its sides, and said in a loud, but not shouting voice. "Attention, players. Welcome to my world. My name is Kayaba Akihiko. I am currently the one and only person who can control this world."

Keiko scrunched her brow. _Kayaba Akihio... where have I heard that name..._

Oblivious to her thoughts, this Kayaba Akihio continued. "I'm sure that you've all noticed that the logout button on the main menu has been removed." The figure raised his left hand into the air in front of him, then lowered it, opening his menu as if he was a player, except everyone could see his menu as if it were their own. "However, this is by no means a mistake."

Keiko blinked.

"I repeat: it is not a mistake, but a feature of the true Sword Art Online."

Keiko blinked again, her breath catching in her throat.

"You are all unable to lot out of SAO, and nobody in the real world can remove the NerveGear or interrupt its operation. Should that be attempted, a powerful burst of microwave radiation emitted from a transmitter in the NerveGear will destroy your brain, thus ending your life."

With those words, her veins filled with ice and she felt the life being choked out of her. Eyes wide, she took a half step back, barely resisting something vile threatening to come up her throat. Even with the rest of the people in the plaza talking, the only thing she could hear were those last words echoing in her mind again and again.

Still, through her reactions, the wretched voice wouldn't stop. "Unfortunately, it's certainly possible that a player's family or friends would ignore this warning and attempt to forcibly remove the NerveGear. As proof of this, two-hundred thirteen players have retired from both this world and the real one."

The monster continued on after that, but his voice seem to muddle into an echo that she couldn't make out. Her mind racing, the only thing that she could really hear clearly were those last words he said. Covering her mouth with her hands, she hunched over as she felt the vomit trying to come up her throat. Nearly collapsing and tears in her eyes, she swallowed down the bile. _No... no this can't be happening!_ She screamed in her head. _I... why would someone do this!? Why wait to tell us!? What... why did..._

She started breathing, frantically trying to get air into her lungs. _Why me? Why did this happen to me!?_

"And lastly," she finally was able to hear that monster saying, "I've prepared a present for all of you in your item storage. Take a look."

Working on autopilot, Keiko complied with what he suggested, working her menu to get to the inventory page until she saw a single item: a Mirror. She pressed the icon in her menu, letting the item materialize in front of her, taking it into her hand. Looking at it, she saw herself, or at least her character's self.

A flash of light appeared next to her, stealing her attention away from the mirror. Then, another. And another. Soon, the entire plaza erupted into the same pillars of light that appeared like when they were teleported in. A moment later, and she found herself caught in the same pillar of light. Closing her eyes, she prayed that wherever she was being taken, it would be somewhere safe. But when the sound of the light stopped entering her ears, she still heard all the people around her that she did before. Slowly, she reopened her eyes, glanced up, and noticed she couldn't see over the heads of anyone in the crowd anymore.

If it were possible, she heard her heart-rate triple its speed, her eyes more wide open than before. Slowly turning her vision back down, she gazed into the mirror again. What she saw was not the face of a heroic figure of legends that would save everyone. It was not a champion that would free the prisoners. It wasn't even a knight that could stand beside others as an equal.

All she saw was herself.

Again the monster spoke, but like before, she heard none of it. All she could do is stare at her reflection in the mirror and look at the terrified face of the little girl in it. The face of a little girl that had no chance of surviving here. A girl that her brother Sanso told her would die and respawn dozens of times within the first day. A girl who didn't know anything about fighting or games or anything related to anything.

It was just herself: a girl that would die.

The red glow smothering the plaza suddenly disappeared, causing her to rip her eyes away from the mirror and look back towards where the monster used to to be. Her vision blurred, but even still she saw that the figure was gone, with no visible clue for her to see where he have might have left to. Her heart still racing, she kept thinking the same thoughts over and over and over again. _Why me?_ She had no chance of surviving, that was for sure. She had gotten beat down a few times today from what were supposed to be the easiest creatures in the game! How was she supposed to beat this game if she had to fight things worse that those! Even worse, according to Lolipop, the floor... _wait._

 _"Well, Yuuki finds me still logged in, she'll probably just—"_

Her mind and body froze, replaying those words that Lolipop said. If... if Lolipop was right and that pillar of light was her actually... then...

Keiko dropped the mirror she was holding, the object shattering into pieces. Trembling, she closed her eyes, hugged herself as she stumbled backwards. "No... no!" she screamed out, running into the person behind her.

Whether it was her yell that caused everyone to snap out of their shock or something else, she wasn't sure. Either way, her voice acted as a floodgate opening, with a torrent of cries of panic and despair filling the plaza from everyone else around her. She couldn't make out what any of the voices were saying—frankly she didn't care—but she had a good guess on what every single one was saying anyway. Slowly, she slumped to the ground, falling to her knees, and curled up into a ball. Whatever happened later in the plaza she wasn't really sure, nor did it matter. All that mattered was one thing: she would die.


	3. Chapter 3

_AN: Thank you to everyone who's reading this right now! If you aren't... well... you haven't read this so whatever!_

* * *

Silica yawned, rolling over and attempted to pull the sheets over her shoulders. Unfortunately, as soon as she tried this, the sheets pulled themselves out from the foot of the bed and uncovered her feet, exposing them to the cold. Grumbling, she kicked the sheets back down, but that only allowed her upper body below her chest covered, exposing everything else to the cold of the world this time. She repeated this a few times, trying to find a way to get everything covered in the warmth, but she just couldn't find a way to do it. _Stupid cheap inns. If that sheet can't cover me, I can't imagine how most people survive with it._ Sure, it was horrible for her at four foot eight, but for players of a more... average height?

Sighing, she turned herself around and sat up and planted her feet on the ground, letting the completely insufficient and worthless blanket fall to the floor in front of her. Groaning, she stretched out her arms, desperately trying to work out the aches and pains that the lumpy mattress left her last night. Noting that the stiffness in her neck wasn't too bad this morning, Silica relaxed her arms, smacked her lips, and groaned. "Morning, world."

Hearing no reply, she stood up from the bed and, with a flick of her fingers to navigate her menu, equipped her red tunic and the cloth shoes: the same outfit that she had spawned with. Thankfully, both the starting outfit and the shoes didn't appear to have any sort of durability rating, which meant that she didn't have to worry about walking around the road one second and being arrested for indecent exposure the next.

"Not like I could afford another outfit anyway," she mumbled as she stood up, flattening the back of the skirt part as she stepped over the now-forgotten blanket and made her way to the door. She opened the door and stepped into the hallway, the soft sounds of people on the ground floor filling her ears. She combed her fingers through her loose hair a few times to make sure any bedhead was gone before she made her way down the hall, down the stairs, and scanned the main floor that filled the main part of the inn. _Huh, more people than usual. Maybe I got up earlier than normal?_

Shrugging, she dragged herself to the front counter, where a balding man had his back to her. Like every other day she came down, he was stirring a pot full of... something—she never bothered to check what it was and she had no interest to either. The moment she got to the counter, the man turned around, smiled, and walked over to her. He started to stroke his bushy moustache as he said, "Good morning, adventurer! What can I get for you?"

"Oatmeal," Silica grunted.

He paused. Then he continued. "Certainly, miss. One bowl of oatmeal, coming right up! Would you like something to drink with that?"

"Water," she grunted again.

Again, he paused. Then with a beaming smile that served nothing but to make Silica scowl, he said, "Of course, miss. One glass of water to go with your one bowl of oatmeal. Would you—"

"No," she muttered, raising her hand close to her face, her finger pointing in front of her.

A moment, then he said, "Very well. Your total will be five Col, miss."

Her finger was in motion before the menu to accept the cost even appeared in front of her. She pressed the accept button, then plunked her head against the counter as the man went about getting her her meal. _It's a freakin' computer game. Why can't it just appear in front of me the moment I order it?_ If she was expecting an answer, she was left sorely disappointed. Still, after only what must have been fifteen seconds, she heard a pair of light "thunks" as her order was placed on the counter next to her.

"Here you go, miss," he said, his hand playing with his moustache again. "I hope to—"

"Yeah yeah," she muttered as she walked away, leaving him to continue with his dialogue script as she went to the first open table that she found. Noticing the table near the stairs was available, she sat herself down so her back was facing the wall and, without even bothering to look at the food in front of her, scooped a spoonful into her mouth and took a bite.

She was able to resist the initial gag that typically came after the first taste. "Would it really hurt that much to make this taste something remotely similar to food?" she grumbled, spooning up the 'oatmeal.' Looking down at the bowl filled with oats and water, she scowled. "Seriously, at least grind up these things first."

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, held it, then let it out slowly. She spooned up another bite and put it in her mouth, finding that—as always—the second bite tended to always go down much smoother than the first. Nodding to herself, she rested her head in her hand and looked around the dining room, seeing that, indeed, there were more people in the room than there normally was when she woke up for the day.

Near the entrance to the inn, by himself, sat Roman, his own demeanor making it feel like she was looking through a mirror or something... except he was a guy and she... well... wasn't. In all honesty, he could seriously use a haircut, because his sorry excuse for what Silica was sure he would claim is an "afro" was an insult to hairstyles as a whole. Granted, he'd have to do a lot more than just cut his hair to make him even remotely average on the looks scale, but at least it wouldn't make him look like such a joke.

The next table over sat Rosewood and Heartwood, their fighting over whatever was today's topic probably being the loudest conversation in the entire room. Silica couldn't tell if the two were brothers. related in other another way, or if they were just friends. They really didn't look similar, with Rosewood being tall, lanky, and his head covered with jet black hair while Heartwood was shorter, possessed much more average build, and had light brown hair. Regardless, the naming scheme was too close to be coincidence, so they had to at least have known each other. That all said, she wished the two would quiet up a little bit, for they were being far too loud for this early in the morning and she was already getting an onset of a phantom headache from their argument. _At least they're pleasing to the eyes,_ she thought to herself.

A few tables over was someone she didn't recognize. _A potential new resident, or just a one time thing?_ Regardless, whoever it was was hopefully not staying for any longer, for he was anything but a pretty sight. His dark brown hair reached down past his shoulders, but was greasy like he hadn't taken a shower in a month. Pimples covered his entire face, making him look like he had taken that hair grease and rubbed it as a facial cream or something. Lastly, he was fat; really really fat. Like, if his real life profession was a professional speed eater, she wouldn't be surprised. All in all, if Roman was considered "below average" in the looks department, this guy would probably find some improvement by being hit by a truck.

Silica winced. _Okay, I definitely woke up on the wrong side of the bed today._

Finally, her eyes fell upon the biggest group. To them, she couldn't help but to sigh. The four of them looked nothing alike, so must have been friends in the real world. The slightly chubby guy, Fire, was currently just watching the others talk amongst themselves, apparently content with just listening. The blonde-haired girl next to him, Earth, was standing rather than seated, telling some story or making some point to the rest of the group. Across from her, a bald guy named Water was also standing, attempting to talk over the girl, but fortunately was not nearly as loud as the pair across the room. Finally, the last guy of their group, Oxygen, was playing with his food, not really paying attention to the other two talking.

The last person in the room, other than herself, was an older guy that she met a week ago. He was at least forty years old and had introduced himself as Shogi. From all appearances, he seemed like a decent looking guy—if a little old—with his black hair cut fairly short and his short facial hair giving him a "rugged" look. However, when the guy had talked to her last week and introduced himself, she couldn't shake the feeling of how... creepy it felt as he was talking to her. The tone he talked in and the phrases he used, she kept thinking that he was going to try to get her to kiss him or... worse. Thankfully, she was almost done with her meal at the time so was able to get out of that situation before he tried opening any trade menus of any kind.

The unfriendly yelling between Heartwood and Rosewood piercing her skull further, she dipped her spoon into the bowl once more as she rubbed her temple with her left hand. Hearing a soft "clunk," she looked down at her bowl and narrowed her eyes at the offending bowl of oatmeal. _You offensive stupid bowl. Where did you hide the rest of that tasteless cardboard?_ Unanswered, she completely dropped the spoon into the bowl, grabbing the cup of water. She downed the entire cup in a few short gulps, slamming the wooden cup back onto the counter next to the bowl and stifled a soft belch that came up.

Resigning herself to the noise, she continued to rub her head with her left hand as she shifted through her menu. As she worked through the pages, she muttered to herself. "Lets see... it's seven-thirty right now; earlier than I normally start, but whatever. Hmm... I do have enough Col to take the day off if I wanted to honestly... but what would I even do?" Silica sighed, dropping her hand as she stood up, the menu disappearing in the process. "Well, not like there's anything else to do, huh?" Not bothering to do anything with her bowl and cup, she scooted out from the bench she was sitting at and made her way out of the inn. Ignoring anyone that might have given her a glance, she opened the door and stepped outside.

Surprisingly, she found herself not instantly blinded. Normally, the standard morning procedure was to squint her eyes and raise her hand to block the sun until her eyes adjusted, but with sun had not quite crested the line of buildings across the street, it just allowed her to stand in the buildings' shadows. Whether it was a good change, a bad one, or just an irrelevant one in general was not really something she was sure of. Regardless, she welcomed the change anyway, or at least welcomed that she didn't have to lift her arm this time. Taking a right, she headed towards her destination.

As she walked, she let her head turn left and right, taking in the all-too-familiar sights of Corral Street. Stepping out of the line of shabby inns were the early risers among players. Well... maybe not the _early_ risers of players, but they were up and about before the majority still. Even at her earliest rise, she had absolutely zero interest in waking up before dawn like the earliest of those Type-A wackos. How they could do that day in and day out and still go to bed at the same time as the rest, she'd never understand.

Still these earlier-than-most risers were a much different sort than the majority of people that she woke up with. For starters, the majority were actually wearing armor and weapons of some kind on their hips or backs or—in the case of polearms—in their hands. Sure, there were a few, like herself, that were going out without any sort of weapon or armor equipped, but if Silica actually had any Col in her pocket to bet, she'd wager that those players were stall owners or something. Especially telling that these players were somewhat competent was that almost none of them were wearing the original starting tunic.

Finally at the end of the street, she took a right to get onto the actual main street and, while she was surprised at how clear it was—even with how early it was—she was not surprised with the much more familiar expressions that she was seeing throughout some of the players. They all shared the same look: a slight frown on their faces, a dulled and long stare in their eyes, and a slacked gait as they meandered down the road. Their arms didn't sway enough to show any vitality the players held inside, as if they had any inside to show anyway. Even their hair was just... flat, as if it picked up on the mood and joined the chorus. All in all, every single person on the street shared the same aura of depression as the next.

If she had a mirror, she knew she'd see the same thing.

Letting out a deep breath, she shook her head and slapped her cheeks lightly. _I can't be thinking like that,_ she thought to herself. _I just have to not think about it and just do my job... yeah._ Deciding the "people watching" was not doing phenomenal wonders for her mood, she looked away from all the people and just locked her eyes onto the path in front of her.

Almost full month had passed since she'd gotten trapped in this... well... this nightmare, for lack of a better term. In that time, she heard more than she needed to hear about what was going on outside the city. In just twenty-six days, over two thousand players—two thousand _people_ —had died. Silica wasn't great at math, but even she knew that was nearly a hundred a day. So many in such a short time. It was... it was unbelievable. _How could someone, anyone, do this to all of us? We're just a bunch of normal people. Most of us are just kids. How could anyone think that this is... anything but just hell?_ She hoped that she would never meet the man that did.

She did hope her dad and Sanso did though: they'd beat the snot out of him.

Sniffing, she wiped her eyes. "No," she whispered to herself. "I can't think about them. I'll just... I'll just..." Rubbing her eyes harder, she took a deep breath, held it, then let it all out at once. Thankfully, the burning feeling in her eyes and lump in her throat faded away. Breaking down in the middle of the street was not the way she wanted to spend this morning. Not again.

Turning down a side street, she was surprised to see that she was the first one here today, the rest of the players most likely still asleep or at least still eating breakfast. Letting a tiny smile spread across her face, she walked up to the man sweeping the street just outside of a house. "Hello there," she called out.

The man looked at her and, pausing only long enough to tip his hat towards her, continued to sweep. "Hello there. W—"

"Yes," Silica interrupted.

The man stopped sweeping and leaned the broom up against the wall next to him. Standing up straight, he put his hands on the small of his back and stretched. "Well, Maggie was supposed to give—"

"Sure," Silica interrupted again.

He paused for a moment before he smiled and started pointing behind her. "Well, if you insist then go to—"

"I'll be back," Silica interrupted one last time before she turned and started walking away. She heard him finishing up whatever his scripted lines were as she turned the corner and walked down the main street again. She didn't need to hear the same quest line again to know what to do. Unfortunately, she had to walk almost all the way across the city to get to to the next person in the quest line. Still, at least the streets right now were relatively clear of most of the people that she usually had to dodge out of the way to get there. At this rate, she'd get to the next location in about twenty minutes or so. The downside was, like every morning, the sun was now in her eyes.

 _Why does it have to be so far away?_ Silica thought as she pushed past a particularly overweight player, muttering "Excuse me," as she passed. With the long distance and the crowded streets that she had to take, there really wasn't any good way to speed up the trip. She'd tried running down the street, but that only served to shave off a minute or two on the way there, then on the way back knock into a player and then be forced to listen to said player yell at her all the way back—and that was if she was lucky. Even then, with how exhausted she got from the running and dodging through the crowds, she was beat by the time an hour passed.

Going through side streets wasn't really an option either. One particular day a few weeks ago, she mapped out what was possibly the fastest route through the side streets and back alleys, only to find that it ended up being a confusing zig-zag path that ended up taking almost half again as long as the main streets. And with how narrow and uneven those alleys were, she could forget about even thinking about running. Technically, she hadn't bothered trying to use the rooftops yet, but just the idea of trying to climb up the three or four story buildings, run across the roofs, then leaping across alleys and streets was enough to deter her, even if she couldn't take damage. Lastly, she wasn't sure there was a sewer or not, but if there was, the quest reward was _not_ enough to drag her down there.

Pushing past an armored man that had to at least have been two meters tall, she turned down an empty side street, the buildings to her left casting a shadow over the narrow street. Granted, even if it was later in the day, it wasn't like she would find herself stuck in the heat, for all down the street, large canvases tied on the buildings on both sides blanketed the cobblestone below. Instead of being a uniform style or look, every one of the sheets was different, with some being striped with white and some color, some being various solid colors, with a select few having some sort of special design of some kind. She'd overheard from others that these unique ones probably had something special in the nearby buildings, but from what Silica had gathered in the little amount of time she investigated it, it was nothing but rumor and urban legends.

Noticing the bread-shaped sign in front of her, she turned to the right and walked into the open door. Inside, she took a moment to let the warming smells of baking filled her senses. She always told herself that, no matter how many times she entered the small shop, the smell of the various breads and pastries would never cease to warm her heart and soul. The fresh smell of the baking bread was by far the strongest smell, but it was nowhere close to the best one in here. Rich pastries, cakes, and cookies never stopped invading her nose, almost overloading her sense of smell. However, the one smell that pierced through them all were the cinnamon rolls—an item that only appeared in the mornings. With another deep inhale, she told herself again that, no matter how many times she would come in here, her mouth wouldn't stop watering.

She smacked her lips and frowned: that lie still wasn't working.

Walking up to the woman behind the counter, the chubby woman looked up at her. The woman scratched her neck and greeted Silica. "Hello, miss. What can I do for you?"

Silica leaned against with counter with a forearm. "Mr. Henderson sent me about his order."

The woman snorted. "Old man Henderson? Yeah, I—"

"He said he doesn't have any money right now, but he's willing to fix your oven for payment," Silica said in a monotone.

The woman rolled her eyes. "My oven? But my oven—"

"He said Sally told him otherwise."

Sighing, the woman wiped her nose. "Sally did? Well—"

"He accepts." Silica raised her hand near her face and pointed a finger in front of her.

The chubby woman reached down and pulled out a bag from inside the counter. With as much care as she could give with the speed she was using, she started to wrap several loaves of bread in paper and place them in the cloth sack. After six were put into the bag, she slid the entire thing towards Silica. "Here you go, miss. Just make sure that Mr. Henderson gets all six of these, you hear?"

As soon as the sentence ended, Silica threw her finger forward. She barely saw the trade menu open before she pressed the accept button, letting the baked goods dissolve away to store themselves into her inventory. Without another word, Silica turned around and left the bakery, took a left, and headed back towards where the entire quest started.

Turning back down the main street, she saw that even with only thirty minutes or so, the road was much more congested than when she was going towards the bakery. Looking around, she saw many of the kind of players that she normally would've seen out and about were finally filling the roads: the ones that were dressed in the same starting outfits as she was wearing. With the glum look like they were on death row—a not entirely inaccurate thought, if Silica was honest with herself—they dragged their feet to whatever daily quests that they performed to simply survive. Just looking at them, she wondered if those two thousand people that had fallen were the lucky ones: at least they got out.

Silica shook her head and slapped her cheeks with her hands. _No. I just said not to think negatively like that. Just do my job and nothing else._ Still, even with telling herself that, she knew she was just trying to hide the truth from herself, if that was even possible.

She shook her head harder and slapped her face with both hands so hard, she suspected that she might have taken damage if she wasn't in a safe zone.

A few minutes and two red cheeks later, she turned down the original side street and headed towards Old Man Henderson's place. The moment her eyes fell on the place, she felt a frown overtake her face. "This many people already? I couldn't have taken that long." Cursing her luck, she got in line behind the twenty people, and waited.

Unfortunately, it appeared that the normal "experienced" crowd she dealt with wasn't here, and many of the players in the line hadn't memorized the quest. Or maybe someone was being especially cheeky and wanted to hear the flavor dialogue? Regardless of which of those it was, instead the short three or five minute wait it should have taken, Silica shuffled in that line for at least ten minutes.

Finally, she got to the front of the line. As the young boy in front of her steamrolled over Mr. Henderson's script. Silica worked through her menu to bring up the bag of bread. Clicking on it, the bag appeared right in front of her, floating in the air just long enough for her to wrap her hands around it. Honestly the inventory system was one of the best parts about the game—she could only imagine how many times she would've screwed up this quest if the only way to carry this thing was with her actual hands.

The kid in front of her walking away, she stepped forward. "I have the bread, Mr. Henderson."

The old man stopped sweeping, stood up straight, and chuckled. "Well well well, I—"

"She said you have to repair that oven but also give her other ones a look over," Silica bulldozed.

The man coughed. "W-what? Is—"

"Here you go." Silica held out the bag to him. "Six loaves of bread."

He took the bread in his grip and, after looking through the bread, gave a satisfied smile and chuckle. "Heh heh heh. Well, I don't know what else to say, other than I swear that woman _loafs_ doing business unless she gets a _rise_ out of me." Silica mentally groaned as the man laughed at the ungodly abysmal joke. His chuckles finally dying down he reached into his pocket. "Here you go, Miss. For your aid."

Silica took the few coins he had and, like every time she looked at them, wished death upon that man's digital family. An hour of her time, the walking, the bumping into people, and that stupid stupid _stupid_ joke... for ten Col.

Staying silent for another five seconds, Silica finally said, "Hello there."

The man, halfway through leaning back down to sweep, looked up at her and tipped his hat. "Hello there. W—"

"Yes," Silica interrupted.

She blazed through his script like she had the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times before, until she finally got him to tell her that she was free to walk over to that disgusting bakery. Turning on her heel, she started to walk down the street, past the growing line, and off towards the bakery again.

And thus was how she lived. Ten Col and hour for seven hours a day. With that, she could afford the cheapest room in town for fifty Col, three meals for five Col each, and save the last five for a day she decided to have off... whenever she decided to do that. In all honesty, if she ever did decide to give herself a day off, she was sure she would just sit around and slowly lose her mind counting the floorboards in her room... then the nails in those floorboards... then the amount of grains in each plank.

It was not her kind of entertainment.

Instead, she just kept walking back and forth between the Old Man Henderson's house and the bakery again and again until lunchtime, eat her cardboard sandwich, continue her walking back and forth again and again, eat her soggy cardboard stew, then go to bed. The next morning, she'd have her cardboard soaked in water oatmeal, go to Old Man Henderson's house, then repeat the whole cycle over. It was enough to make her scream.

She got a lot of glares when she did that the last time in the streets.

Sure, she heard that people earned far more from going outside the city and actually killing monsters and gathering their drops. Heck, if she remembered correctly, those boars she killed dropped at least as much as she got from doing a single one of these quests, possibly more. Not only that, but she would be able to get experience from it as well and actually up her level, something this quest gave absolutely nothing of. Just the thought of eating something other than a variation of cardboard actually made her pause and think about it.

Then she imagined herself getting run through with one of those tusks and dying like the thousands that had already, and that ended that idea.

 _I mean, what chance do I have?_ Silica thought to herself. _The guys who are the top levels haven't even beaten the first boss. If those pros can't do it, then what chance do I have?_

Letting out a breath, she continued on her quests. She didn't bother counting how many times she went between the two people, but she knew that Mr. Henderson must have had so much bread he could start his own bakery at this point. Regardless, as she was walking walking towards the bakery on one of her routes, she finally felt her stomach telling her it take a break. With no sense in trying to fight it—not like it would go away anytime soon—she stopped by the cheapest, crappiest place she could find on the main street, ordered the cheapest, crappiest sandwich, and sat down and ate the gag-worthy monstrosity.

As she ate, she watched people go by. Like every day, there were hundreds that went in each direction. Where they were all going, she had no idea. Unless every single one of them was doing a quest similar to what she was doing, why would so many be on the road walking? Shouldn't they be out in the field, eating at a restaurant, or something else? Just what could they be doing? "Maybe a bunch of them are NPC's?" she wondered aloud between bites. "Too many to actually make out if all of them are labeled... hmm..." Shrugging, she took another bite.

Turning to her right, she looked at the people that were in the eatery with her and saw a bunch of people wearing decent looking armor eating and talking to one another. She obviously couldn't see what their names were, but she noticed well enough from the green cones over their heads that these people were definitely players, so they must have been pretty powerful. "Are they friends inside the game, or are do they know each other outside? Hmm." Shrugging again, she took another bite.

Hearing a loud commotion start on her left, she turned to see a bunch of players gathered around a table—she counted at least ten—silently listening to a lone voice. From here, she couldn't make out what any of what was being said, but from the way they were captivated, it it must have been important. "Maybe someone discovered a item on the secret menu or—"

The group suddenly let out a loud cheer, causing Silica to nearly jump out of her chair. Wide-eyed, Silica watched as the group started to literally hug each other, letting out hoots and hollers and saying things like "We're gonna win," or "It'll only take half the time for the next one!"

Narrowing her brow, she took the last bite of her sandwich, stood up, and walked over to where the group used to be, the most of them dispersing through the place and undoubtedly spreading whatever news they just received. Walking up to a man a head taller than her, she said in a raised voice, "Umm, excuse me."

The man turned around and... no... the _woman_ with very short hair turned around, a smile planted on her face, and looked down at her. "Yes?"

"What were you all just talking about?" Silica looked around. "What's such good news?"

The woman let her smile grow wider and she slammed her hand on Silica's shoulder with enough force to nearly crumple Silica's legs. "Why, apparently we have some badasses out there that kicking ass, that's what!"

Silica cocked her head. "Huh?"

"Yeah, apparently a bunch of players found and took down the Floor Boss just earlier today." The woman shook her head. "Obviously I don't know for sure, but apparently a bunch of people are coming through the Teleportation Gate in the middle of the city, saying they came from the second floor."

Her jaw dropped. "R... really?"

The woman let out a short laugh before slapping Silica's shoulder again. "Really! Man, and here I thought I was doing good. Anyway, spread the news, will ya? We're on our way to getting out of here!"

Silica slowly nodded, her jaw still slacked as the woman walked away. She felt the gears in her mind slowly turn as she flipped this information around in her mind. "They... they beat the First Floor Boss?" she whispered to herself as she stayed planted where she was in the middle of the restaurant. "That... that means that it's not impossible... doesn't it? If they can beat the boss, then that means that it's possible to win..."

A second later, Silica turned on her heel and briskly strode out of the building, taking an immediate left at the door and continuing down the road. If it was possible for them to be able to fight and win against the boss, then that meant that it was possible for many others to survive in this world as well. Maybe those people that woke up every morning at dawn to go out and level up weren't absolutely insane after all! Sure, there might be a little risk involved in the fighting, but wasn't there risk in the real world too? If one were to think about it, just stepping outside her front door in the real world was risky in itself! She could be run over or something!

Settling with that argument, even though she knew it was flimsy at best, she made her towards the first weapon shop she could find and stopped just outside the front door. Sure, she still had her broadsword, but she only settled on that that weapon in the first place because she couldn't use a greatsword. Even then, with her height, she wasn't sure if that was actually possible. _Is using a big weapon like that possible for something my size?_ Regardless, it wasn't like she could find out right now anyway: Like Lolipop said a month ago, such a weapon was quite out of her price range.

She opened her menu, scrolled to her inventory, and looked at how much money she had on her. "Three hundred eighty. Hmm..." she trailed off as she rubbed her chin. "If I remember correctly, the cheapest thing in there was about four hundred, so I guess I won't be able to buy anything after all. Maybe some of the player stalls will have something, or would they just be more expensive than the stores? Maybe I can—"

A tiny bell rang as the door in front of her opened. "...And let me tell you, I don't care what Charman-oof!"

Silica suddenly found her face-first in someone's chest as whoever was talking ran right into her. Caught unaware, she fell backwards, landing on her rear with an "Oof" of her own. Rubbing her butt, she quickly closed her legs and, hoping whoever ran into her didn't get a peek, looked up at whoever ran into her. That "whoever" was some foreigner, with white skin and red hair, and with a medium build. He looked like he was in his twenties, but she couldn't get a good read on him—on one hand, his facial features were definitely older than a teens, but on the other, his peach-fuzz mustache looked like something a fifteen year old would attempt to grow.

Rubbing the back of his head, he held out a hand. "Hey, sorry there... umm..."

"S-Silica," she stuttered, taking the hand. She stood back up and patted her skirt down. "My name is Silica."

"Bulba," he said, a small smile on his face. "Anyway, like I said, sorry about bumping into you."

"N-no, it was my fault," she said, lowering her gaze. "I wasn't paying attention."

"Well, either way, no harm done. Anyway, have a good one." With a final nod, he and the friend was talking to walked past resumed their conversation.

" _...I guess I won't be able to buy anything after all."_

"Umm, excuse me! Bulba!" Silica turned around and ran after the man. Fortunately, he wasn't too far away and apparently had heard her, for he was already turning around.

"Yes, Silica?"

"Umm." She clasped her hands together in front of her and rubbed them together. She felt her face flushing, but she willed the words out. "I... I was wondering if I could have a little Col."

He raised an eyebrow. Looking at his shorter friend, who merely shrugged, he rubbed the back of his head. "Uh, look, I don't want to sound rude or anything, but I don't want to start a charity or anything. I mean... aren't there a few quests that give you some without any real risk?"

She grimaced, remembering the quest she was still technically still doing, before continuing. "I don't want a lot! I just... I'm twenty Col short of getting a weapon, and I don't to do that quest anymore because it's super super long and doesn't give a lot and I... just..."

Trailing off, she looked at her feet and continued to rub her hands together. "I... mean... I'm sorry, but..."

"Hey, how about this," a new voice said. Looking up, Silica saw that it was the other red-headed friend. Grinning, he navigated his menu. "Let's see here... ah here we are!"

A final press of his finger, and a menu appeared before Silica. _Let's see... he's giving me a... what?_ Silica sputtered. "I... I can't take this! Isn't an iron spear a bunch?"

The redhead chuckled. "Hey no worries. I already have a better weapon," he said as he shook the spear in his other hand. "Besides, the durability on that sucker is super low, so it's not worth that much unless you put a good bit into it to repair, so no worries."

Silica nodded. "O... okay. Well, if you say it's okay," she said as she pressed the accept button. Not bothering to look at the weapon yet, she bowed. "Thank you so much!"

The two of them chuckled. "Hey not a problem. Just be careful, okay? Kid like you shouldn't be out there, but might as well be prepared." Silica looked up to see the two of them wave, turn around, and begin to walk off.

She pouted. "I'm not a kid," she muttered under her breath at their backs. Shaking her head, she went back through her menu and looked up the _Crude Iron Spear_ in her inventory. _Let's see... oh wow, the thing is nearly completely broken! He wasn't kidding._ Still, she smiled at the fact that she just got a free weapon from him. _Say... I wonder..._

Silica ran up to a random man on the street and said, "Excuse me!"

For the next couple hours, she went from person to person, asking every single one of them if they had any weapons that they didn't need that she could use. Like a bucket of ice water, the next person she asked politely told her to "Go to hell." So did the third person. And the forth. And the fifth. Still, for every five people that told her to get lost, there was one that was somewhat sympathetic, apologized, but still didn't give her anything. Yet, for every three of those sympathetic people, there was one that would smile and give her some weapon that, like the spear, was nearly nearly busted.

She was honestly surprised on how many people were actually willing to give her weapons. Maybe it was because their inventory was full and they were just going to throw out the weapons anyway? Maybe it was because the resale value of the weapons was terrible with such a low durability, so there was no point in selling them? Or maybe it was simply because she was a super cute girl and they were trying to impress her? The last one made her smile, but she was pretty sure that it was more likely one of the first two.

And so, two and a half hours later, Silica found herself standing on a grassy hill just outside of the city, dozens of other new-looking players all over, scrolling through her menu. "One two-handed axes, five daggers, a spear, and two shields to go with my broadsword," she said to herself. Nodding, she clicked on her menu a few more times. "Alright, well, since I got the spear first, let's go with that one."

With one last click, the _Crude Iron Spear_ materialized in the air in front of her, standing perfectly vertical to let her grab it in her hands. She blinked, moving the almost two meter long weapon between her hands, spinning it slowly in the air. Considering she was only about one hundred fifty centimeters tall and the man that traded the weapon to her was at least a head taller than her, the only explanation she could think of was that the weapons had to resize to the player that wielded them. If that wasn't it, then the man must have either liked short spears, or he used it one handed—both which Silica doubted.

Regripping the wooden shaft of the spear, she stared down at her target: a boar that was somewhat close to her and slightly to her right. _I'm level three, so this guy shouldn't be a problem at all._ For a moment, she visualized how she always saw people using spears in action movies. Then, the mental image in her head and a grin spreading across her face, she let out a yell and charged the target.

She stabbed into the side of the boar, instantly bringing the creature down to half its health. Not letting the boar recover, she pulled the spear out of the flesh and started spinning the spear around her, over her head, and even once passed it between her legs. Unfortunately, even if she reacted as soon as she hit the first shot, the boar still was able to recover before she was done with her spins. After what she felt like was the required "spins" a true martial artist master would perform, she leveled the weapon again and stabbed into the boar's face.

The back end of the spear "thunked" into the boar's snout, doing minimal damage.

Cursing, she stepped back, spun the weapon... and noticed that said weapon was no longer in her hands. Suddenly finding herself disarmed, she stepped back and looked around, eventually finding the weapon flying in the air behind her, only landing in the ground soundlessly a solid five seconds later.

She turned to the boar. "Oops?"

The boar charged at her, forcing her to jump to the right, feeling the shoulders of the boar itself on the underside of her boots. Hitting the ground hard on her chest, she scrambled to her feet and, with only a glance to see the boar was still off balance, dashed towards where she saw her spear fly. Thankfully, the spear didn't land as far away as it appeared before and the weapon wasn't all that hard to spot. Sliding to a kneel, she grabbed the shaft of the weapon, turned, and saw that the boar was a scant few meters away. Hitching her breath, she pointed the spear tip at the boar, planted the butt of the spear into the ground, and closed her eyes.

A force shoving the spear into the dirt and a loud "squish" confirmed that the boar was unable to dodge in time. Silica opened her eyes, just in time to see the boar's corpse burst into a million polygons, followed by the tell-tale menu of the spoils of the battle. Sighing, she dropped back from her kneel, landing on her butt as she placed a hand on chest and gulped down air. "Yeah... no... I am never ever doing _that_ again," she said as she shakily opened her menu and unequipped the spear.

Standing up, she opened her inventory and pressed a couple options. Immediately after, her old _Crude Iron Broadsword_ appeared on her side and a _Crude Wooden Round Shield_ appeared on her back. Shrugging her left shoulder, the shield fell off of her back, and she grabbed the center handle on the shield—the shield itself not having an actual forearm grip of any kind. "Huh, I didn't know shields worked like this," Silica muttered as she moved it, up and down then a few short "punches." Nodding, she drew the sword at her side and, after a silent prayer the next fight would go better, she found another boar, and moved up a nearby hill.

Upon getting near the top, she readied her stance similar to how Lolipop had told her the very first day—with her sword arm forward and her shield arm back. However, the second that she did this, she looked at herself and saw that the shield was completely useless, at least unless there was a sneak attack from the back. As such, she shifted her feet so her left shoulder was in the front, allowing the shield to actually cover her. Bringing her sword up so it was almost vertically up, she narrowed her eyes and charged at the creature in front of her.

Just a step away, she stepped with her right foot, pivoted, and chopped with all the power she had in her, slicing into the boar's left hip in what felt like a solid hit. The moment her sword was through it, she stepped her right foot back and brought up the shield in front of her and watched as the boar turned around, backed up, and started to scrape against the ground in preparation of a charge. Instead of trying to dodge, she lowered her stance and put her entire body behind her shield. The boar finally charged, ramming right into the wooden shield in front of her.

Silica was knocked completely over as the boar slammed into the shield, landing hard on her butt and back. Thankfully, she saw that her health only went down a tiny sliver, but unfortunately, she was so close to the boar that she could pet the thing if she wanted to. Her stomach tightened, and Silica barely raised her shield to cover her face in time to block a hoof stomping down on her. The shield, not really braced at all, slammed back at the force and bashed into her face, rattling her teeth and making the world spin.

Not willing to take another hit like that while laying on the ground, she quickly rolled to her right, allowing herself to start rolling down the hill she just climbed. The boar was slow to react, giving her precious space before her body spun around and stopped rolling halfway down the hill. Kicking her legs up, she rolled backwards and stood up, placing her shield in front of herself once more. Again, she let the boar ready itself for a charge, waiting for the creature to make the first move.

The boar charged forward, lowering its head to stab her with one of its tusks. Silica quickly shifted to the right and "parried" the charge with her shield, forcing the boar to almost bounce off of her to the side. This time she was able to stand her ground and recover easily in time for a counterattack on the boar. Raising her sword high in the air, she stepped forward and chopped at the boar, cutting it on the left hip again. She followed through by twisting her wrist and raising her weapon, following the same path that her sword had just taken and cutting right where the glowing red gash still was.

By now the boar had recovered enough to jump back and face her. Instead of a full on charge, the boar instead simply jumped forward, smashing into the raised and braced shield of Silica. The boar bounced off, allowing Silica to shove her sword forward, jabbing the boar in the snout. With that, the boar staggered backwards, slumped over, and exploded.

Silica gasped for breath as she lowered her arms, the loot notice appearing soon after. _Holy hell, that shield is heavy. Do I have to be a body builder or something for this!?_ Silica sheathed her sword and pressed the confirmation button to close out the spoils menu. Opening her own menu, she worked through her inventory and unequipped her sword and shield. _It's better than that spear,_ Silica looked at her skinny arms, _but still..._

She clicked through her inventory and clicked her last option, equipping the _Crude Iron Two-Handed Axe_ , immediately feeling the weight of the weapon on her back. She reached behind her and, with a grunt, pulled the thing over her shoulder and basically dropped the head of the axe onto the ground. It was a pretty simple design, with a wooden shaft and a single axe blade on one side. Upon seeing the somewhat small axe head—at least compared to what she'd seen players walking around with—her eyes bugged out. "Geez, it weighs that much and only has one blade on it? Do... do they get heavier the bigger they are?"

Her eyes were drawn to her left, where a boar had just respawned at the bottom of the hill. _Well, might as well test it out anyway,_ she thought to herself as she lifted the thing up. Grunting as she hefted the axe up, she rested the haft on her right shoulder. Slowly, she walked down towards where the boar was sticking its nose to the ground, either sniffing or eating the grasses. When she closed the gap to a scant few meters, she moved her left hand to grip the wooden haft near her shoulder, moving the weapon off of her shoulder entirely. With a loud yell, she charged forward and chopped at the boar like a lumberjack.

She hit the creature fairly well, tearing into the boar's side and watching as almost half of the health slid away. Following through, she... well... she _tried_ to follow through, but the axe apparently wanted to have none of that. Instead, the axe planted itself firmly into the ground near the boar's feet, apparently waiting for a potential king to draw it. Shaking her head, she poured all her strength into her arms and pulled the weapon from the grass. Sadly, a crown didn't appear on her head.

Instead, the boar turned towards her and jumped in an attack. Silica barely got the haft of the axe in the way of the boar's snout before the boar hit her and forced her back, her feet sliding in the grass as the monster overpowered her. A moment of reprieve hit when the boar stepped back, allowing Silica to rotate the axe around, so that the head was back above her. With another yell, she chopped at the boar again. This time, she barely grazed the boar, with only a slight sliver of health bleeding off. Silica didn't attempt to stop the movement of the axe, allowing the swing to continue around. Silica felt the momentum carry the weapon around, so that the head swung back and above her head.

The boar charge at her again, and again she used the haft of the weapon to block the attack. Flicking her eyes up, she saw her health slowly draining bit by bit. Not willing to wait until she was in actual trouble, she shoved the boar back and—

As soon as she shoved the boar back, her axe exploded into polygons.

Silica blinked, staring at her now empty hands. "But... but..." she sputtered, slowly opening and closing the now very empty hands.

A blunt impact against her stomach shocked her back into the world. Falling backwards, she slammed into the ground again, coming down on her butt and into a sitting position. The boar snorted and, before she could get up, it charged again. Silica rolled to the right at the last moment, avoiding the majority of the attack. Yet, she still felt a hoof step on her arm as evaded the majority of the blow.

Silica panted as she brought herself to a kneel. _Okay, okay, okay. My axe disappeared somehow... wait... shoot! The durability!_ She shook her head and rose to her feet. _Idiot! You knew the durability was almost out! Of all things to mess up on! Idiot!_

Silica jumped out of the way of another charge, feeling the wind against her side. She landed in a roll, immediately spinning around. _Calm down, Silica. Calm down. Weapon... you need a weapon,_ she thought as she quickly opened her menu and clicked on her inventory. Through the matte screen, she suddenly saw the boar's figure quickly approaching. She gasped, pressing the first weapon she saw to equip it, then jumped to the side again. Again, she wasn't quite fast enough, and felt the boar hit her foot. As she landed, she felt a slight weight form on her belt on her left side. Not bothering to look down, she grabbed the handle of the sword and yanked it out of the scabbard.

She looked down and narrowed her eyes. In a low tone, she said, "Why am I holding a dagger?"

The boar did not verbally answer. Instead, it lowered its head and charged at her again. As she did the past few times, she waited for the last moment, then jumped to the right. She landed in a roll, quickly raising back to her feet and faced the creature. She leaped forward and buried the dagger all the way to the hilt into the left hip of the boar, almost completely clearing away whatever health was left in the boar, only a tiny sliver remaining. Quickly, she pulled the dagger out and plunged it back in, draining the last remaining bit of the bar, leaving the boar to do nothing but explode in its death.

Before the loot message even appeared, Silica collapsed to her knees, panting. "Stupid... durability... thing..." Pressing away the loot notice with her right hand, she looked at the dagger she was holding. "Still... using this felt... pretty good actually. I didn't feel like I was throwing around a tree, I didn't just sit there and take hits for days, and I didn't... throw it away like an idiot." Smiling, Silica stood up. "I'll try out the others again, but I think I found the one!" she announced a she flipped the dagger in her hand. She tried to catch it, but ended up grabbing the blade end, causing a tiny bit of damage and making her drop it.

Muttering to herself, she picked it back up and slipped it into the scabbard as she worked her menu to pull out the spear again. For the rest of the day, until the sun was nearing the horizon, Silica tried out the weapons that had been gifted by those people, this time making especially sure to keep an eye on the durability and not let the items blow up in her face. In the end, her initial suspicions were confirmed: she felt better with that small dagger than anything else in her inventory. So with that, she nodded, sheathed her weapon, and walked back into town.

For dinner that night, for the first time in almost a month, she ate a meal that didn't taste like cardboard.


	4. Chapter 4

With a final jab, Silica watched as the _Weak Kobold Minion_ dropped his club and burst into polygons. Grinning to herself, she stood straighter and slid her dagger back into its the leather sheath, then clicked away the loot menu.

She held the smile on her face for a few more seconds before she let it drop and sighed. To say that today was a good day of hunting would be disingenuous at best. Looking around, she let her already faltering smile morphed into a frown as she noticed there were no more "easy" kobolds around for her take care of. Sure, she noticed a few groups of them here and there in the distance, but just the thought of trying to take down five of those things at once made her hitpoints drop a few points. Hell, she wasn't sure if she could take that many of those boars at once, let alone that many kobolds, considering their levels. Worse yet, it had been like this all day, with the singles or pairs being far rarer in the tunnels than she'd normally experienced. _Maybe I'm actually trailing behind someone's path? That'd be my luck._

Silica pushed the thought down and, putting her loose hair behind her ear, stalked forward. Sticking to the walls, she darted from crack to crevice make sure she was out of sight of the large groups that would easily make mincemeat of a player going solo. From past experiences, she knew that it was an exercise in futility—creatures, or at least the ones she'd encountered so far, apparently didn't "see her" at the sort of distance she was keeping right now. Yet, no matter how many times she told herself that, the clammy hands and quickened heartbeat she got every time she was forced to hug the wall near one of those larger groups never went away. Carefully, she crept to a corner and peeked around. The tunnel in front of her looked clear, but she kept to the walls as she turned said corner and continued.

The cave system she was in was almost the stereotypical definition of a "cave dungeon" that one might think of. The floor was made up of dirt, with very little in the way of gravel or larger rocks littered around to serve as trip hazards or cover. Further, the floor itself was completely bare of anything else, with not even furnishings for the kobolds to use... if they weren't NPCs, at least. As for the walls, they were mostly rough stone, curving all the way up and towards each other to create arched tunnels or expansive caverns. The tunnels were small, spanning no more than about ten feet wide and tall in most areas, while the caverns themselves could span anywhere between a hundred and three hundred feet across. The larger groups of kobolds tended to stick to the caverns, with the solo and pairs mostly occupying the tunnels.

Silica frowned: for a dagger user like herself, the lack of dodging room and mobility in these tunnels was a nightmare.

The entire cave system was lit up by intermittent torches that lined both sides of the tunnel and all the walls of the caverns. In all honesty, Silica found it hard to believe that the torches were actually close enough to light up the place as well as they did, but not only did they light up the furthest corners obscenely well, the lighting was spread completely evenly throughout. Not even a couple inches from the torches was the light brighter than the average. Hell, not even the exact center of the largest of caverns, where torches should've done nothing more than provide moral support, had an inkling of darkness in them.

Other than that, the only thing of note in the caverns were the rare points like here, where the rough rock wall was replaced with actual worked stone. Lifting her hand, she felt the bricks and gaps in between. Yet, her gaze wasn't really focused on the gaps in the bricks. Instead, they were trained at the strange script that was etched onto the bricks themselves. While many of the characters looked somewhat similar to English, most of the letters were completely foreign. She was fairly certain none of the words were English at all—if nothing else, it wasn't any English she'd learned in school. Indeed, she heard similar reports from a few people in the city, along with a few... interesting rumors about what their true purpose was. There were some that said they gave directions to the now-dead First Floor Boss. There were others that claimed the various scripts were hints towards hidden questlines. Heck, there were even a few truly optimistic people that claimed they were directions on how to escape the game sooner rather than later. Silica was in the camp that there _was_ no actual translation, and the not-words were merely there for decoration.

Reaching a T-intersection, Silica pressed herself up against the left wall at the corner. The tunnel in front dove straight, plunging onward and lower into the earth. Crouching, she reached her right hand behind her back to grip the hilt of her dagger, the cool leather grip bringing a sense of calm into her breathing. Taking a moment to make sure that there were no kobolds in the straight passage—there still weren't—she bent over and peered around the corner.

Immediately she pulled back behind the wall and rested the back of her head against the bricks. _Good, only one of them, and he's facing away from me too._ Slowly, she slipped the dagger strapped against the small of her back out and stood up completely, holding the dagger to her chest like a small sword. She took a deep breath, counted five heartbeats, then released it. Again, she took a breath, counted five heartbeats, then released it.

She stepped out of the cover and dashed towards the kobold. The kobold started turning around the moment she started her sprint, but by the time it was halfway turned she had already cleared most of the distance between the two. Wordlessly, she jumped forward and stabbed the kobold in the stomach, the dagger going all the way to the hilt. She heard the monster cry out as it stumbled backwards against the force of her entire body smashing into it. Silica yanked the dagger to the right with both hands, ripping it out of the monster, then kicked out with her left leg. Unfortunately, while the kobold staggered back a couple steps, she nearly fell completely over, barely catching herself as she stumbled backwards.

Silica scowled. _Stupid eighty pound self._

Planting her feet, she shifted her left leg back and moved her dagger in front of her. Even with the botched kick, she smiled and watched the kobold's hitpoints drain to less a third. She jumped forward and lashed her dagger out towards his stomach again. This time, the kobold swung his club across, catching Silica's wrist. She spun slightly from the force, throwing her strike wide and only grazing the kobold's side. A fist suddenly found itself in Silica's gut as the kobold uppercutted her with his left hand, her feet actually lifting off the ground from the strike. She staggered back, clutching her stomach, and watched as the kobold cackled and lifted his club high in the air. It swung down, but she grit her teeth and sidestepped it to the right, feeling the club hit her left arm lightly.

She stepped back half a step then jumped forward again, slashing at the kobold. She caught it in upper arm, dropping the monster's health into the red. The kobold cried out again and swung its club, but she dropped to a crouch and let it sail over her head. Finally, with one more thrust, she rammed her dagger into its... well... Silica blushed at where she stabbed it. Whispering a silent apology, she saw the kobold freeze, lighten into white, then explode.

Sighing, she slowly straightened her legs, and slid her dagger back into the scabbard. Rubbing her stomach, she checked her own hitpoints, which had barely dropped from the last fight—that punch apparently not doing nearly as much damage as it felt like. In all honesty, she was sure that, in the real world, that hit would have knocked her to the ground and kept her there as she bawled her eyes out or something. Thank god that SAO didn't have any sort of pain, just a feeling of "pressure" and a slight drop in hitpoints whenever she got hit with anything. Well... okay maybe there _was_ pain and maybe she'd yet to take a big enough hit to register it yet, but she hadn't felt any pain yet.

Silica rubbed her stomach some more. _Yeah. I'm not going to test that theory._

Lowering her hand from her stomach, she clicked away the loot menu and continued down the tunnel, the passage now completely bare of any monsters of any kind. Sighing, she looked down to find a loose rock to kick, but of course the dirt passage had no debris, rocks or otherwise, of any kind to kick. Frankly, she was bored. Sure, the few flashes of combat got her heart pumping and her legs moving, but in between each bout she spent five to ten minutes simply walking around with nothing to show for it. And it wasn't like those moments of combat lasted that long—it was typically less than half a minute each fight. The worst part was that it wasn't like there weren't monsters to fight. It was just if she didn't want to get completely mobbed by a group half dozen strong, she had to avoid ninety percent of them. Probably more.

Yet, it didn't matter if she wasn't able to fight most of the groups and only found solo or pairs in rare instances, she was still making far more progress here than anywhere else that she had tried on this floor. Realistically, with her being level six, her choices were here, that forest near Honruka Village with all of those plant things, or force herself into areas that were high enough of a level to be... less certain of success. And since the forest was close to the city and thus completely swamped with players, and the thought of a less than one hundred percent success was nauseating, it came to this.

She shook her head, forcing the outside voices in the tunnel out of her ears. Of course, the biggest issue with this area really was how completely remote it was. The forest had that village right next to it with every shop and amenity one might need, and even if you had some strange hatred for small villages you could easily walk an hour or so to the Starting City. Here? She swore it took half a day to get here. Probably less if she didn't get lost about five or six times on her way here, but considering how strange the terrain got in the hills, she always got—

Silica stopped. "Wait... voices?"

Squashing her thought process, she closed her eyes focused more. A couple of seconds and... yes! Apparently she _did_ hear voices coming from down the tunnel she'd just entered. Well, to call them voices would be somewhat misleading, for what she was hearing was much sharper and more unorganized than actual conversation: less talking and more random yells. After confirming that the direction they were coming from was down the tunnel she was currently heading down, she abandoned all pretense of caution and sprinted.

A minute later and Silica skid to a halt at the end of the long tunnel, her chest heaving for breath. Not bothering to pause to catch it, she crouched down and peered around the corner. The tunnel opened up to one of the smaller caverns she'd seen so far, only being about sixty to seventy feet across, and looked basically the same as every other cavern she'd encountered recently. Near the center of it was a group of kobolds, though instead of the groups of ten or so that she'd normally seen in the caverns this size, there were only about three here.

Of course, that was most likely because of the one unique feature of this particular cavern. In front of her, off to the left but still distinctly between her and the kobolds were three players, easily visible by the green cursors over their heads. She couldn't get a great description on what their faces looked like since their backs were facing her, but she could at least tell that two were definitely men and one looked somewhat like a girl, at least if the ponytail in her hair was anything to go by. Otherwise, she could tell that the larger of the two men had two-handed hammer, the shorter had a greatsword, and the girl had scimitar and a round shield.

"Urgh!" the larger of the two men staggered back, a kobold apparently bashing him somewhere with its club. Silica unsheathed her dagger and charged into—

Before she took more than two steps, she stopped. _Wait, what if they don't need my help? I know that if some guy jumped into a fight of mine randomly, I'd be a little annoyed. Plus I heard that you were supposed to avoid unknown players. What if they're dangerous?_ Silica shrunk back into the corner a little more. _If... if they look like they're in trouble, I'll join in... yeah..._

Gulping, she watched the battle play out from her spot across the cavern. Despite that hit from that kobold against the large man, the entire battle swung in the players' favor. Immediately, the two men ganged up on one of the kobolds and beat it down until it exploded as the woman drew attention from the other two. With only those two kobolds remaining, the players quickly surrounded them and started hacking away. To be honest with herself, once she thought about it, Silica wasn't entirely surprised that they didn't really need that much help. After all, even if this was one of the smaller groups, then that meant they had already beaten down at least two or three of those things before she'd even showed up. As such, it was only a few more seconds before the last kobold exploded into polygons.

Silica let out a breath she had been holding. Regardless of whether the three players in front of her were good or bad, she was glad that they were completely fine after all of that. Sure, if they were bad guys that would mean they did bad things, but just because they were bad guys didn't meant that they should die! Nobody should have to die in this twisted prison that they were forced into. Besides, she was pretty sure that these guys were all good and—

"Hey!" she heard one of the men say, the voice sounding gravely. She blinked and noticed the three were all walking towards her, the woman waving towards her. She gave a weak wave back with her left hand. _Crap,_ she thought to herself. _I_ really _hope that they are friendly._

The three players continued to approach until they were no more than fifteen feet away. Now that she got a better look at them, she was able to actually make out what they looked like. The taller man was fairly plain in his looks, other than the fact that Silica didn't even come up to his shoulders. From his brown eyes to his light freckles to even the shape of his face, everything about him screamed "average." The one thing going for him was his build, which was fairly muscular, though not overly so.

To the man's right was the sole girl of the group, her brown hair tied back into a short ponytail. Even Silica had to admit that her slim figure and wide hips painted her as fairly attractive, though her slightly oversized nose took away from it a little. Still, standing almost a full foot taller than Silica's four foot eight, the girl emanated an aura of confidence with the way she stood straight, kept her eye contact on Silica, and smiled wide and toothily. The one thing that gave Silica pause was how similar she and the taller man looked. Logically, the two were either related in some way, but she supposed it could've been some kind of coincidence.

Finally, the last of the trio, standing to the taller man's left, was the shorter of the two men. In fact, to say he was the shorter of the two men was somewhat misleading, for he was much shorter than the guy nest to him, only standing at about the same height as the girl that was with them. Short salt-and-pepper hair covered his head and his face and body were slightly pudgy, though not overly so—just enough to give him a little "meat on his bones," as some would say. That said, he was definitely older than the other two, with the first two looking like they were about ten years her senior while he looked at least twenty or thirty years older than her, if not more. All three were wearing the same kind of armor as her: a _Crude Leather Chestpiece_. However, their actual clothes were different from the starting sets, with each varying in styles of pants, and—in the case of the girl—shorts.

Silica noticed movement to the left, grabbing her attention. She turned her gaze, suddenly noticing that, even though the girl was smiling and her shield was on her back, the grip on her unsheathed scimitar was tight, the girl's fingers flexing in the grip. Stealing a quick glance at the other two, she noticed that, while the taller man appeared relaxed, the shorter, while having his weapon put away, had his hands slowly opening and closing as his arms were not entirely at his sides.

She nearly made a comment before she blinked, looked down and saw that her dagger was raised in a half ready position, pointing towards the three. Swallowing, she slowly moved her hand back behind her and, fumbling only slightly, slid the iron weapon into its sheath.

That simple action seemed to lift a literal ton of weight from the air around all of them. The two shorter players in front of her both relaxing their stances, the girl even returning her sword into the sheath it belonged in. Letting out a sigh, Silica waved again and said, "Hey."

The girl stepped forward. "Hey! Didn't expect to see anyone else this deep in these tunnels. Actually, forget that; I definitely didn't expect to find a person by herself down here. Gotta say, for a girl to be down here by herself, you got some fucking balls."

"White," the taller man said lightly, looking down on the girl.

The girl looked up to him and furrowed her brow. "What!? It's true!" Shaking her head, she looked back at Silica and smiled. "So, what's your name?"

Blushing at the girl's... colorful language, Silica did her best to keep the smile on her face. "S-Silica."

"Silica, huh?" The girl, apparently named White, nodded. "Sounds nice! Anyway, in case you missed it, I'm White. This big lug right here is my brother, Black. Lastly, the guy at the far end is—"

"BBBB," the man said, giving a slight bow. "Though, most people just call me Fourbee."

 _I knew those two were related,_ Silica thought as she nodded. "Well, uh, it's nice to meet you three."

"Likewise!" White cheered, clapping her hands together. "So, a dagger user, huh? You don't see a lot of those."

Silica turned her left shoulder towards them slightly, uselessly hiding the dagger from White's direct sight. "Y-yeah... why? Is that an issue?"

White opened her eyes wide and shook her hands in the air. "Oh no no no! Fuck no! I'm just saying that you see a lot more of the sword or axe users. Bigger weapons do more damage and all, you know?"

Silica nodded. "Yeah."

"But still, daggers are pretty fucking cool I guess—lots of ducking and dodging and all the backstabs I guess?" White shrugged. "I mean, I still prefer my sword and shield, but if you want to start playing at ballet or something weird like that—"

"White." Black looked down at his sister again and slowly drawled out, "Don't be mean."

"Right, sorry! Didn't mean it like that!" White rubbed the back of her head and chuckled.

"Silica," Fourbe suddenly said, drawing Silica's attention to him as he looked at his menu. "Have you eaten lunch yet?"

Silica shook her head. "Uh, no. No I haven't."

Fourbee nodded. "We probably should stop to eat ourselves. Wish to join us?"

White gasped. "Oh you totally should join us for lunch! Please please please?"

Silica tried her best to hide the grimace that she felt flow through her. _These... new people want me to join them?_ She _knew_ that was risky—risky as hell. Sure, they seemed friendly enough, even with White's... colorful vocabulary, but still, weren't serial killers also supposed to be charismatic or something? She'd seen horror movies! It wasn't the super evil monsters that forced themselves in to your house that were the scariest, it was the ones that were pretty and you let in that gave Silica nightmares. Those were the ones that got you when your guard was down.

Still, whether it was their disarming smiles or simply the fact that Silica hadn't talked to anyone for more than a few sentences the past month, she couldn't help but to sigh, smile, and throw caution into the wind. "Sure, why not?"

"Alright!" the older girl yelled as she ran up and grabbed Silica by the hand. "Come on come on, sit next to me!"

Silica chuckled, quickly looking back to the other two guys as she was pulled along a little further backwards into the tunnel she was just in. Barely not getting her arm torn out of its socket, White eventually pulled her around a corner so that the cavern was no longer visible—the two men following a few steps behind. Getting dragged close to the wall, White pulled Silica down, almost forced into sitting right in the older girl's lap. Silica fixed the skirt of her tunic, then opened her menu to pull out the sandwich that she had purchased in the town that morning and a small waterskin of water. She only waited long enough for the rest of the group to pull out their meals before she took her first bite.

As Silica chewed—the turkey a little dry—she turned to Fourbee as he spoke. "Well, I believe we've made some pretty good time today, kids. If we keep the rate up, I think that, unless one of you two isn't as far as I thought, we'll be able to at least hit level six in the next hour or two."

"And let's not forget the sweet, sweet Col!" White said, pumping her fist in the air. "When I get back to town, I gotta get some gloves and boots and maybe even a kickass cape! Everybody wants a cape, right Silica?"

Black shook his head and slowly said, "I want a new hammer."

"But we just got you a new hammer!" White shook her head. "There's no point in getting a new hammer yet!"

Black paused, blinking a few times. Eventually, he said, "But I want a hammer."

White sighed. "Brother, you can't get a hammer. You need better armor first."

Again, Black paused and blinked. This time, he scrunched his brows together, apparently deep in thought. After a few seconds of not saying anything, White turned towards Silica and said, "So Silica, what are you going to do with your money?"

Silica scrunched her brows together. _Wait, you want to know what I'm going to buy? We just met!_ Still, even though caught mid-chew, she opened her menu and scrolled into her inventory and checked her swallowed the food, then said, "I'm not sure."

"Not sure?" White took a bite of her food and kept talking as she chewed. "How can you be not sure? You're a _girl._ Girls always want to buy things!"

Silica looked down. "Well... I don't know. I know I need some gloves, but I haven't thought about it."

"Yeah, some gloves... as well as a pair of boots and a cloak and maybe a new set of clothes." The older girl gasped. "Oh my god, you would look absolutely adorable in a pleated skirt!"

Silica frowned, looked down a little, and played with the hem of skirt of her tunic as she sat on the dusty floor. "I'd be much happier not jumping around in a skirt..."

"Psh, you worry too much." White waved her hand dismissively. "Just wear matching panties or some—"

"I decided," Black suddenly said.

"Oh?" White turned to him.

Black nodded. With an overly large smile, he said, "I... want a hammer."

Despite her best attempts to cover her mouth, Silica let out a loud snort at the statement. Thankfully, she was able to look away from Black before she silently started to shake, feeling her entire body convulse from the stifled laughter. Meanwhile, she saw Fourbee smile and shake his head, muttering something to himself. However, whatever it was escaped her, his volume too low and she unable to read lips.

Silica heard a slap come from White and when she turned back, saw the girl with her face in her hands. With a loud sigh, she lifted a hand and patted Black's shoulder softly, though she never looked in his direction. "Okay, bro, how about this: if, and only if, after we buy you all of the things you _absolutely need,_ we'll look at hammers, okay?"

A wide smile spread over the... persistent guy's face. "Okay, sis."

White rolled her eyes and said something under her breath, and Silica swore she heard a curse or two mixed in there. A couple seconds later, she raised her head back up and turned to Fourbee, saying in her previous chipper voice, "So, what are you thinking of getting, old man?"

"Hmm? Haven't thought about it myself. Probably just going to save it for now," he said, taking a last bite to finish off his riceball.

"Psh, boring!" White blew a raspberry at him. "I mean, the whole point of money is to spend it! Right, Silica?"

Silica swallowed the last of her sandwich, barely not choking on it as she was once again put into the spotlight. "Oh... umm... actually..."

"Oh god." White frowned and turned back to the older man. "Fourbee, you're rubbing off on her too much!"

Fourbee blinked. "But we just met."

"And that's what I mean! You're rubbing off on her _that much!_ Stop it!"

"Right," he replied, nonplussed. Breaking out of the momentary stun, he opened his inventory and, with a click, pulled out three cookies. "Here, a gift for you three," he said, passing them out to the group.

"Thanks," Silica said, overhearing the other two say the same thing. _Nice, chocolate chip._ She took a bite, tasting the rush of sugar flow over her tongue as she closed her eyes and let out a barely-audible moan. Opening her eyes, she looked back to Fourbee and noticed that he didn't have a cookie in his own hand. "Where's yours?"

The older man shrugged, waving the air dismissively. "Only expected three of us, but don't worry about it."

White snickered. "Probably for the best anyway. We don't want to aggravate Gramps' diabetes."

Again, Fourbee shrugged. "We're in a computer game. I can't 'aggravate' my diabetes here."

White froze, then blinked. "Wait... you have diabetes?"

"Yes. Should've taken better care of my weight when I was younger."

"Oh... okay," White trailed off.

Meanwhile, Silica's mind was whirling as she looked at the suddenly much older man. _Forget twenty, he might be fifty years older than me!_

"Okay indeed," he said as he stood. He brushed the dirt off of his pants and turned to Silica. "Say, Silica, I hope I'm not imposing any, and you're free to say no if you wish, but would you like to join us for the rest of the day? I'm sure being by yourself must be difficult."

"Oh... uh... I don't..." she stammered, gripping the hem of her tunic as she remained seated.

"Psh, don't be like that!" White laughed, pulling Silica to her feet as she herself stood. "Come on, it'll be fun! Right, Black?"

Black nodded. "It'd be fun."

Silica tried to pull her hand free from White's grip. She failed. "I don't know... I mean... I don't want to impose..."

"Is that all?" Fourbee chuckled. "On the contrary, it would be quite the boon for us as well if you were to agree."

White nodded. "Yeah, we sometimes have this other guy, Freebird's his name, that likes to use a spear and run around like an idiot all the time. Quiet and not _nearly_ as cute as you are! We could totally use a fourth!" The older girl suddenly pulled Silica close and clasped Silica's held hand into both of hers. "Pleeease?"

Silica looked from White to Fourbee, back to White, then even to Black, and saw nothing but smiling faces and happy eyes. Giggling, she rolled her eyes, but couldn't stop her smile from growing wider. "Well... I guess if you _need_ another person, I could help out."

"Fuck yeah!" White said as she yanked Silica back towards the cavern that the last fight took place in. Looking behind her, Silica threw the other two a wary grin as they lagged a few steps behind. "It's going to be so awesome having you in the group! Like, holy shit, finally another girl in the group! Do you realize how damn awkward it is to be the only girl in the group of all these smelly boys?"

"Uh... pretty awkward?"

"Completely and totally! Like..." White trailed off. She looked in both directions before pulling Silica close to her and whispered, "I feel like they're starting at my ass the entire time."

 _Isn't one of them your brother?_ Silica bit her tongue and let the thought slip away. Instead, after a couple seconds, she looked up to White. "So... uh... what's the plan?"

White cocked her head as they entered the cavern—it was still empty of enemies. "Plan? What do you mean by that?"

"Like, how are we supposed to fight and such. Are you going to go to the center and hold them as I hit their back? Or maybe I sneak around and do a first strike sort of thing? That kind of plan."

White giggled, letting go of Silica to pat her head. "Oh, that sort of plan? Yeah, we just do whatever!"

"Just... do... whatever?"

White nodded. "Yeah! We just go in and fight and kill things as we see fit! Why bother with planning when what we're doing is working out so well already?"

"Silica does have a point though," Silica heard Fourbee say from behind her. "Especially since we now have... well... Silica here, it would make sense to come up with an actual battle plan."

There was a slight pause, then Black added, "I wanna hit them with my hammer."

"Okay okay okay... uh..." White trailed off as she stopped, letting the rest of their group arrive at the edge of the cavern. "Okay, so Silica, you... uh... hit them in the back or something, and we'll... uh... hit them in the front?"

Silica blinked. "Um... okay?"

She heard Fourbee sigh from behind her. "White, child, may I add an idea?"

"Psh, by all means, go for it! I'm not one for battle plans or anything!" White shrugged and patted the hilt of her sword with her palm as it hung from her hip. "I'm more of a 'hit things, think later' sort of gal, ya know?"

"I'm aware," Fourbee answered in a deadpan. He brought his hand to his chin, tapping it for a few brief moments. Eventually he pointed towards White. "Okay, White, you and I charge the front to hold them there. While that happens, we'll have Black wait a few seconds, then after we've been forced back a few steps, he'll hit their right flank and—"

"Yeah, that's not going to happen," White interrupted.

Fourbee raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And why not?"

"Remember? Black... he's... well..." White looked to Fourbee and Black, biting her lip as she apparently thought about the right words to use, "...he's not the... most strategically minded lug out there. I mean, throw him at the enemy and he'll do work like nobody else, but talk about flanking or pincer maneuvers or tactical retreats or—"

"Right right," Fourbee muttered. Tapping his chin again, he said, "Well how about we swap him and myself? He'll take the front with you while I flank? Would that work?"

Black nodded. "Can I hit them with my hammer?"

White nodded as well, chuckling as she clapped her hand on her bother's shoulder. "That much, at least, he can do."

"Splendid. Anyway, like I was saying earlier, you two will hit them in the front and try to draw aggro, but don't go too crazy. I shall take the right side when it looks like you have their complete attention. Then," Fourbee said, turning towards Silica, "the young miss here will join in from their rear, hitting them hard and fast, but only when you are safe to do so. Understand? Don't just charge in: just hit then jump back."

Silica clinched her fists and nodded. "Right!"

"Good." The sudden sound of what was similar to a player teleporting echoed through the room, and when Silica faced the source, she saw that five kobolds had just spawned into the room. "And look, the group we killed earlier is back. Perfect timing, if I may say myself."

"Fuck yeah!" White yelled out as she drew her sword and took her shield in her hand. "Hey, Black, you ready for this?"

Even from behind Black, Silica swore she saw him smiling. "Let's kill them, sis."

The two charged, both laughing as they went to engage the group. Fourbee himself simply sighed, drew his greatsword and, nodding towards Silica, ran to the right to pull off their plan. As for herself, Silica smiled lightly, drew her dagger, and charged forward.

* * *

 **Yes yes, I know, a plethera of OCs. Sadly, considering the nature of the story, it's either go heavily AU, have Silica go solo forever, or introduce OCs. Obviously (for me, at least), the last of the options was the only reasonable one.**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5

"I told you, I am not dropping my fucking pants for you!"

Silica stopped midstride, nearly letting the plate of food in her hand fall to the floor. She blinked once, then twice, then thrice as she let the words sink into her head. _Why would Marc Antony even_ ask _that sort of question!?_ she heard herself mentally wail. She shook her head to clear out the thoughts and continued to walk towards the table. Obviously she misinterpreted what was going on between Marc Antony and White. Him demanding something like that of her? Yeah right! For all she knew, it most likely that—

"Come on! You don't have to do it here! Just drop them in your room and let me see what you got!"

Again, Silica stopped, this time fully letting the plate of food in her hand slip from her grip and fall. Cursing, she grabbed at it, but she missed the plate and allowed it and the food hit the floor. Clattering once, the food shimmered bright for a moment, then the meat and the potatoes and the greens and the carrots and the shattered plate and all her hopes and dreams of a good meal shattering. She paused for a moment, sighed, then continued with just her cup of juice in hand, she strode the rest of the way to the table.

"What are you two yelling about, and why do I have a bad feeling about it," Silica growled as she sat next to White, placing her cup on the table.

"Siiiilica!" White whined, leaning over and hugging Silica around her neck. White pressed her cheek against Silica's own as she continued. "Save me!"

"Me, save you?" Silica pressed her hands against White's shoulders, but the older girl hung on despite everything. "Why don't you have Black do that?"

White snuggled deeper against Silica. "I want to be saved, not cause a murder!"

"Uh huh," Silica said as she looked up to Black, the man simply sitting next to his... expressive sister with his ever present blank smile on his face. Silica turned to the last person in their now four person group and narrowed her eyes. "And what are you creeping about?"

Marc Antony sighed and shook his head, his short blonde curls swaying with the movements. Definitely a foreigner, with his pale skin. _Dang, First White and Black, then Marc Antony? What's with all the foreigners?_ Either way, he was undoubtedly one of the cutest guys she'd ever met. To the point that when they first met, she was all stutters and blushing.

And then he opened his mouth, and that impression was gone.

"I'm not creeping. I'm trying to... test something?"

"Testing what? Has to be something especially creepy if you could be a creeping out White here." Silica said as she patted White head—the fact that she was "protecting" a girl twice her age was not lost on her.

"I told you I'm not creeping," he said, groaning now. "I wanted to test what the deal was with the whole Moral Code settings."

Silica's slightly twitched. Her mind was already drawing a few conclusions on what the hell was going on already. "Testing what?"

Marc Antony continued as he gestured in the air—White had once put it as "talking with his hands" or something like that. "See, you know how if we both were to leave on the Moral Code setting and I were to unequip all my armor and clothes right here right now, you'd just see my avatar in its underwear, right?"

Silica nodded. "Yeah, sure."

"Right. Okay, now on the other hand, if both of us were to turn the Moral Code setting off and I took off everything, you'd see my avatar's... well... everything, right?"

She couldn't help but to slightly blush at the thought. "Uh huh."

"Okay, now, what would happen if you were to look at my avatar after I took everything off, except I had the Moral Code off while yours was on?"

Silica looked up at the ceiling for a second. Still in White's tight snuggle, she answered. "I... guess I'd see that person with underwear on."

"Yeah, I thought the same thing." Marc Antony leaned onto the table and steepled his fingers. "Now, what would happen if you were to look at my avatar while my Moral Code was on, but your Moral Code was off?"

Silica opened her mouth, then closed it, furrowing her brow as she remained silent. Working her jaw, she patted White head as the girl continued to be overly clingy. Eventually, Silica shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe show the person... umm... naked," she said, whispering the last part.

Marc Antony nodded. "I was thinking more of a "Barbie Doll" figure, but I really don't know either. That's why I asked White to help me out."

White raised her head up and finally spoke. "You just want to see me naked, you pervert!"

Silica nodded. "That's pretty perverted, creeper."

He rolled his eyes, leaning back on the bench. "Please, like I show any of that sort of interest in a video game character's body."

Both Silica and White narrowed their eyes to near slits. However, it was White who responded. "Oh, so now I'm not hot, huh?"

Marc Antony snorted. "You and I both know that's not even close to what I said. Besides, even if I did say your avatar wasn't attractive, you and your avatar are not the same thing."

"Oh, then what about the fact that we are inside this game playing as ourselves, huh?"

He flicked his hand dismissively. "Our minds are merely inhabiting these avatars, which look similar to our own, but not exactly."

"Oh, mine looks pretty fucking exact to me."

"There are... areas that are not properly representative of our bodies. Trust me."

"If you're so certain, what areas?"

"Turn off the Moral Code, sit in front of a mirror, and—"

"Okay can we please stop please," Silica interrupted, her face heated to volcanic levels.

White and Marc Antony stopped talking abruptly, a silence befalling their group for what felt like an age and a day. Then Marc Antony sighed. "Sorry, I forgot you were still a kid for a moment."

Silica opened her mouth, but was interrupted by White retorting. Yet, instead of refuting the kid remark, she went the opposite direction. "Yeah! Keep your fucking dirty words away from my cute baby Silica, you fucking—"

"White," Black drawled out. "Language."

Silica made a face at the vulgarity anyway, but ignored White's antics otherwise. Silica somewhat interrupting White's rant as she said, "Anyway... why did you ask White? Why not Black?"

"I did ask Black first," Marc Antony said, pausing to take a sip of his drink. Him taking a sip reminded Silica of her own drink. She followed suit. Tasty. "However, when I explained what I wanted and why, he just told me to ask his sister."

 _Yeah, probably because you explained it to him like you did here,_ she thought to herself. "Oh, okay."

Black nodded. "White is the smart one. I'm the not smart one," he droned slowly.

White finally broke her grip on Silica and wrapped her arms around Black's arm. "Hey, you have plenty of good things going for you, you big lug." White turned towards Marc Antony and glared. "And if anyone tells you otherwise, let me know, and I'll see if any of those parts hidden by the Moral Code are removable."

Black smiled. "Okay, big sis."

If anyone was going to respond, the response was lost along with the train of thought as a loud and forced coughing brought the table's attention towards Silica's right. Fourbee stood there, along with another guy that Silica didn't recognize. Silica couldn't help but to stare at the newcomer, barely able to control her jaw not to hang slack. Sure, he could pass off as average man with short black hair and being a couple inches taller than Fourbee, but she barely even looked at those aspects.

 _Good God, he's a stick!_ Silica thought to herself, gaping at the way the guy's twig arms and twig legs spurt out of his body. It should've been absolutely impossible that he was standing at all, considering he must have weighed as much as Silica—she didn't even break one hundred pounds—yet here he was. That wasn't to say that he looked like he was starved or anything, his face was full and his waistline seemed normal enough, but it looked like the guy had somehow been playing this game for a year, _then_ got scanned by the damn NerveGear. _This guy needs to lift some weights! And eat meat!_

"Uh, hey?" Stick Boy said, giving his stick hand a stick wave. Even his fingers were sticks!

Silica noticed she had been staring at him a little too intently, lowering her head and averting her gaze. Before she could reply, Fourbee cleared his throat again. "Anyway, we're all here," he said, looking between the four of them sitting at the table. "And it appears we interrupted something, no doubt perpetrated by Marc Antony."

"Well that's rude," Marc Antony said. "What makes you think that I'm the one that caused this?"

"Well, it certainly wasn't Black, I think anyone would agree to that."

"Of course."

"And White would only get into a fight if someone insulted Silica or her brother, or did something especially rude towards her... or at least that's what I've gathered in the short time I've known her."

White tightened her grip on her brother as Marc Antony nodded. "Sure, okay. Maybe."

"And I dare say that I haven't seen dear Silica start a fight even with an NPC, let alone with a player."

Marc Antony slumped slightly. "I... can't argue that..."

"Which, naturally," Fourbee continued, his eyes weighing down on top of the blonde-haired boy that was currently the target raspberry via White and her tongue, "leaves you: the young man that doesn't quite grasp how real this 'game' really is to the vast majority of us."

"Is it that big of an issue?" Marc Antony asked, putting his hands being his head as he leaned back. He barely caught himself before falling off the bench before he leaned forward. "We're all trapped in these avatars together, so we should work together."

"And _not_ asking girls to help you with your perverted experiments while we're in this god damn prison," White added, glaring again.

"Uh... should I come back later?" Stick Limb Boy rubbed a stick limb, looking like every definition of awkward, and making up new ones as the seconds ticked by.

"No no, it's fine. We'll discuss this later." Fourbee sat next to Marc Antony. "So now that we are all together finally, we can actually do some actual planning for out next outing. Now, since we're all level six, we should be able to deal with any of those kobolds in that cave easily, even the larger groups."

Silica rubbed her arm. _Should I tell them I'm level seven already? Well... nah. It's only a level difference, after all._ Still, she swore that she saw Marc Antony wince and look away, but it was probably because he was level seven as well, or maybe he was level eight! Maybe he had a few tricks up his sleeve. She'd ask later... when he's not all caught up on the Moral Code thing... or something similar...

New plan: she'd talk to him _after_ Fourbee fussed at him.

"Okay, yeah, uh huh, right, cool," White said meanwhile, nodding with each word spoken. With the last word told, she let go of Black with one of her arms and slammed the hand onto the table. "Who fucking cares! We already were able to take down most of the groups at level five with the four of us last week." She gestured at the group, sans Marc Antony and Stick Boy. "With these other two guys, we know we won't have any problems with them. What we should be talking about instead is of fucking bigger... fucking graver importance."

Fourbee raised his eyebrow. "Oh, whatever do you mean, child?"

White looked around the table, eying each of them in turn. When she finished meeting each in the eye, she smiled. "I'm talking about two weeks from now, and the important event that occurs then!"

Silica scrunched her brow. She couldn't recall any sort of game event that was happening anytime soon. Well... she couldn't remember any that was occurring anytime soon for her level at least. Sure, she'd heard of a few events going on soon suitable for the highest leveled characters on the front lines, but like she had any chance with those anyway—she had little intention of going splat in one shot. Closing her eyes, she tried to think. Maybe it wasn't a literal event, but some kind of special quest? Event then, she couldn't think of any that were happening around that time. Heck, she couldn't think of any quests that had ever been date dependent. Maybe it was a quest, and she was actually talking—

A couple claps from Black shook her from her thoughts. "Christmas!" he yelled.

 _Oh._ With the mystery solved, Silica couldn't help but to let her face fall into a slight frown. Regardless, White squealed and messed Black's hair with her free hand, still linking her arm with his. "Blackie! You're so super smart!"

He smiled wider. "No. White is the smart one. I am the not smart one."

"Nu uh! You're the smart one!"

"No. White is the smart one. I am the not smart one."

"Okay okay, I'm the smart one, but you're the super big and strong one." She lifted his arm with hers and moved it to a flexing position with a playful "Grr!"

Marc Antony rolled his eyes and muttered, "Can't deny that."

White shot him a glare, but before she could also shoot him with a fresh retort, Fourbee tapped the table with his finger. "Now now, let's not cause a ruckus or anything. Since it's still early, why don't we talk about our plans for the day now and then later tonight we can possibly discuss more details about the upcoming holidays. Deal?"

White pouted, but nodded. "Fine."

"Splendid, now that we have that all settled," he turned towards Marc Antony, "about that favor you asked of me, I still haven't found anything yet."

"Damn. Okay, thanks." Marc Antony slumped in his place.

"Hang on hang on," White said, leaning forward again. "What favor?"

"Oh, nothing of real importance." Fourbee turned to Marc Antony with a flat look on his face. "It's okay if we tell them, I assume?"

"Of course, I was going to tell them anyway," the boy said. "I was having him look into mounted combat as a skill."

"Mounted combat?" White rapped the table with her fingers every few seconds. "You mean like how you can rent a horse to travel faster than normal?"

"Psh, not even close. I was more talking about a skill where you actually _fight_ on top of the mount. Maybe even get better mounts than a horse, like a bear or a unicorn or a dragon or something."

"Oh, neat!" White nodded. "Though, why do you think it might be in the game anyway?"

"Simply because every commercial of the game has a knight in a horse in the first few seconds. I'd be surprised if they ran with that commercial for so long, only to omit or scrap the entire concept." He shrugged. "Though, it wouldn't be the first time this game company did some... misleading advertising."

"Yeah... the fuckers," White muttered under her breath. "Still, I'd be down with that."

"So would I, but apparently it's fool's hope." Marc Antony shrugged. "Or at least as much as we've found out so far."

Fourbee shrugged as well. "I'll keep helping you look. However, we're losing time on more imminent matters, so let's go ahead and—" he stopped when his eyes chanced over at Silica, who had her hand raised in the air. "Yes, Silica?"

Lowering her hand, she clasped her hands together under the table and rubbed them together slowly, her gaze down. She worked her lips a few times, before she looked up and pointed towards Mr. Stick. "Who's he?"

Fourbee blinked. "He's Freebird. What do you... wait..." he looked between the newly dubbed Freebird and Silica herself. "You two... I thought you two met already?"

Freebird shook his head, mirroring Silica from a few seconds ago with his eyes lowered to his lap and his hands under the table. "Never seen her before."

"Oh, then I profusely apologize then!" Fourbee stood up. "Silica, this is Freebird. Remember a week ago we talked about that one spear user? Well, this is him."

Silica stood up, trying to mask the timid little girl that was oozing out of her. "N-nice to meet you!"

"Freebird, this is Silica. She's the young dagger-using woman that I've mentioned to you a few times."

Freebird stood ramrod straight and shot his hand out in front of him. "Nice to meet you!" he nearly shouted. Silica forced a smile onto her face and took the hand.

 _Huh, not nearly as bony as I thought._ Silica's smile became a tiny bit more natural as she gave it a few shakes. Just a tiny bit. "Likewise!"

"Great now that that's taken care of, let's talk about Fourbee's stupid plans." White yanked Silica down into her seat and grabbed onto her. This time, White was the one petting Silica's hair.

So, for the next thirty minutes or so, the group of six discussed ideas and strategies and tactics and anything else that might come up during the upcoming excursions. Most of the conversation was passed between the energetic and quite vulgar White and the calm and sagely Fourbee. Sure, Marc Antony added a few tidbits here and there about his role in the group—from what Silica could gather from the back and forth, considering she'd never fought with him before, he was a sword and shield user like White—and where he might be best utilized. Black, as always, just mentioned how he wanted to hit them with his hammer. Freebird was the most soft spoken of all, barely adding anything to the conversation, and only then throwing in a few words here and there when he was directly mentioned. _This is guy White called the "guy who ran around like an idiot a lot?" With what energy?_

As for Silica herself, she barely paid attention at all, her mind drawn elsewhere. There were many thoughts that flew through her mind. For one, how Marc Antony once again confirmed he was a complete jerk that didn't have the social skills of a monkey in a zoo. How had he even joined this group at all? She was introduced to him a week ago by White, but from the way the two acted together, saying that the two were close was... misleading. Sure, they were amicable enough, but the likelihood of them being close friends was likely as Kayaba Akihiko appearing before them right now saying, "Psyche! It was just a prank, bro!" then releasing all ten thousand of them.

Though, that would be pretty awesome; quite unlikely, to say the least, but awesome.

Another thought that drew her thoughts elsewhere was how she was _still_ hungry. She hadn't gotten breakfast when she got up—she was forced to camp outside the city because her solo trip ran a little late; definitely would have to stock up on random food for an emergency supply—and her early lunch had been unfortunately deposited onto the floor. Her small frown deepened. She was really looking forward to that meal too! It was a freakin' steak dinner with all the appropriate sides, after all! Well, at least she hadn't also bought the dessert at the same time and at least she didn't drop her iced tea.

Blinking, she grabbed her cup and took a sip. It was lukewarm and quite watered down now. Shame.

Still, both of those paled in comparison to what was really on her mind. The unpleasant feeling bubbled up until she let out a heavy sigh, standing up from the bench, cup still in her hand. She downed it, slid out of from the bench, and started to make her way towards the counter. Before she could take more than a single step away though, Fourbee's voice caught her. "Silica, is something wrong?"

Silica paused and took a deep breath. She let it out, turned her head around and gave the group her best winning smile. "Nope! I'm just tired from a lot of solo work yesterday: I had to camp out and everything. I'll catch up with you guys next time!" She didn't stop to wait for a reply as she turned back around and made her way to the door, opened it, and stepped into the crowded street.

She stopped right outside the front door, the wooden portal swinging closed behind her, and she took a deep breath to take in the scent of the city streets. Silica had to admit, she loved how each area of the city seemed to have it's own distinct smells on top of the aromas that emanated near each specific shop. Like, in the Garden District, the fresh smell of grass and a hint of flowers comfortably blanketed her. Meanwhile, in the Guildhouse District—at least that was what most peopled called it, considering the large amount of guildhouses that would be up for sale when guilds were allowed to form—the scent of a light dust smothered her. Sadly this nice little touch was _slightly_ ruined when Marc Antony pointed out how little sense it made. According to him, Medieval cities stank to high heaven from industry and people throwing their... waste out of the windows. "A lost opportunity at realism," he had claimed with the deepest frown, as if the feature was worse than his current situation. Silica was one of the many who disagreed with him. Fervently.

Turning to the right she made her way deeper into the city. In all honesty, she didn't know where she was really trying to go, so she let the sounds and sights of the city dull into a muffled, blurred garble and aimlessly wandered. She had no interest in fighting more monsters for the rest of the day; her gear still had most of its durability and she felt no need to replace it. Maybe she could go find another place to eat a proper lunch, but with the previous thoughts swirling around in her head, she found her appetite quite far from her thoughts. Maybe she could go and say hi to those people who were staying at that one inn from her first weeks in the game—Rosewood and Heartwood had been nice to her the couple times she talked to them, and she'd forgotten to get them on her friends list. Yet, the moment thought that maybe it would be a good idea, it suddenly tasted weird and she decided against it.

A sudden hand slammed itself on her shoulder, nearly knocking her to the ground. "Silica!"

"Huh, what?" Silica blinked and shook her head. Facing the new visitor, she realized that it was not a new visitor, but one just a few minutes ago. "Oh, hey White. What are you doing here?"

White didn't respond right away. Instead, she panted, with her hands on her knees and held a hand up in front of her. A few seconds later, she stood back up and clapped both hands on Silica's shoulders. "Damn girl! You're a fast walker! Like, holy shit slow down!"

Silica sighed and attempted to subtly shrug off the hands weighing on her. She failed. "Sorry. What are you doing here?" she asked again.

White beamed back at her. "Why, I saw my cute and adorable Silica leaving and I just desperately wanted to snuggle with her!"

Silica groaned, yet didn't move. "Oh, okay."

"Yep!" White pulled Silica closer and slung an arm around Silica's shoulders and whispered into her ear. "Say, you alright?"

"What?" Silica blinked. "Y-yeah. I'm okay. Promise."

White inspected Silica's face for quite a while longer—Silica wondered if there was going to be some extremely awkward public displays imminent—before she started to drag Silica over to the side of of the road. For a second, she resisted, but then she realized that White was not one to be resisted. So instead, she just let White lead her on until the pair made it off of the road and into an empty, narrow alley.

Silica felt herself pushed into the wall and found herself staring into White's soft eyes. "Okay, seriously, what's up?"

She gulped. "I... I told you nothing."

White shook her head, then drilled deeper into Silica's eyes. Silica couldn't help but to stare back, no matter how much she tried to avert her own gaze. "Bull. Tell me what's going on."

"I... I don't..." White's stare turned into a hardened glare, as if she was about to go crazy and yell at her over it. Silica crumpled upon herself, averting her eyes. "I... I... I can't..."

"Oh shit," White pulled herself back. She stepped a few steps backwards before running into the opposite wall of the alley and sliding down into a crouch as she leaned against the wall. "Sorry about that. That whole thing with Marc Antony is still... well... he got on my last nerve," she said with a chuckle.

Silica shook her head. "N-no... it's fine," she stammered out softly as she fell into a sit against the opposite wall. Sighing, she closed her eyes and just listened to the sounds of the city around her. She could hear dozens upon dozens of conversations going on in the main street nearby, though she couldn't make out any individual one. Sure, she heard a few people mention Christmas and such, but nothing that would constitute a coherent thought. Maybe if she were to focus on one in particular she might be able to figure what it meant, but she was not _that_ interested in them.

A few minutes went by before Silica finally said, "Where's Black?"

A pause, then, "Black? He's probably still at the restaurant with the other guys. Why?"

Silica shrugged. "I don't think I've ever seen you two apart for more than a minute or two before... if that."

Silica heard White bark out a single soft laugh. "True true. You know my brother's not the... brightest bulb out there, if there's a light on in the attic at all. Until recently, I couldn't trust anyone to keep an eye on him and make sure he's not buying fifty hammers something just as stupid." White giggled again, longer and more sincerely this time. "Now? Well, I know Fourbee is a good guy, and dependable as hell. Marc Antony is an ass, but he seems to have his head on straight... well... for the most part. Straight enough so I could probably trust him to keep Black's wallet from going into the red. I _still_ can't say much about Freebird, and he's kinda weird, but he also seems alright."

Nodding, Silica said, "That's good."

"Oh, but don't worry, I won't drop him on you anytime soon." Even with her eyes closed, Silica scrunched her brows. "No offense to you, of course, I just don't think it's fair to have a... what? Fourteen year old?"

"Twelve."

"Twelve year old—that young; damn—take care of my needy brother. Know what I mean?"

Silica nodded. "Yeah, I got you."

"Yeah," White whispered, whether to Silica or only to herself, Silica had no idea. The silence went on for a little while longer, before White continued. "It's nice to be able to rely on those guys, you know? Here I was, taking care of that damn lovable oaf of mine for... god... five years now? Something like that at least. It's nice to be able to leave him to someone else for a few minutes."

Silica opened her eyes and saw that White had her eyes shut as well, her head relaxing on the wall. "You don't like Black?"

"What? No! Of course I like him!" White snapped open her eyes and waved her hands back and forth. "Hell, I love the guy more than anything! I'm just saying is it's like... taking care of a kid or something. Except there's no way in hell anyone would 'babysit' a guy like that to let me have a night to go out... or at least none of my friends would."

Silica nodded. "Oh, okay. Sorry."

"It's fine it's fine," White said, a smile on her face. "I mean, sure, he's a pain in the ass and I feel like I'm going to tear my hair out dealing with his one-track mind and he's got absolutely zero sense of privacy or decency or modesty, but he's my brother, you know? As long as I have him, and he has me, we'll be fine."

Again, Silica nodded. "Yeah."

White sighed and closed her eyes again. Seeing her rest her head against the wall, Silica herself closed her eyes herself and once again let the sounds of the city envelop her again. Instead of listening to the conversations this time—not that she could make out anything still—she just relaxed against the rough brick and felt the coarseness of the grain and the indentations of the mortar press against her head through her loose hair.

 _I should really get new ribbons for my hair,_ she thought to herself, feeling her loose locks with her fingers. It wasn't the first time the thought came to her, but every time she thought it she "realized" that she needed to use her money on much more important things, not little cosmetic goodies that wouldn't help her survive. All in all, she wasn't sure if it was worth the cost.

"Oh? Ribbons?" White asked, her voice more curious than normal.

Silica's eyes opened, seeing White starting at her. Silica dropped her hand from her hair. "Huh?"

"You said you wanted to get new ribbons for your hair. Just now."

 _Did I say that out loud? Dang._ "Oh, well... maybe. I'm not sure." Silica ran her fingers through her hair again. "I mean, I might. Maybe. I put my hair up in pigtails, but in the game..."

"You're afraid that if you put your hair up, it'll feel more real?"

"No!" Silica shook her head hard. She stopped shaking it, then rubbed her eyes. "Maybe? I don't know. I... I don't want to think about it.

White nodded. Going silent yet again, the two simply sat there, both with their eyes closed. Instead of taking in the sounds a third time, she just ignored everything around her. Out of the three things she busied herself with in the moments of silence, this was by far the easiest and most comforting. She was a stone on the beach, with the sounds of the city washing over her again and again, slowly smoothing away the jagged edges, until her rough mood was much smoother.

 _Ugh, that analogy sounded awful._

"So... you wanna talk about the real reason you left the room?" White suddenly whispered.

Silica raised an eyebrow and nearly voiced her question before she mentally blinked. _Oh._ Then, she whispered back. "I'm not sure."

There was a pause, then, "'Kay."

Silica took a deep breath, held it, then let it out. "I'm just... I don't want to celebrate Christmas."

"Huh? Why not? You don't believe in that shit or something? It's still fun to—"

"No, that's not it," Silica let out, the force in her voice stronger than before, but still a whisper. "I just... don't see a reason to."

"I... Silica, what do you mean?"

A sigh. "I just... Christmas for me is about friends and family. And I—" Silica stopped, her throat clinching tight inside her. _No, I'm not going to cry. Get through it._ She took a staggered breath as she brought her kees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, then continued. "I'm... not sure... if I can be happy... that day."

Suddenly, White jumped up. "Holy shit, I have an idea." Not waiting for a reply, she whirled around and pointed at Silica's face. "We're having a Christmas party!"

She blinked, the mood whiplash coupled with the seemingly blatant disregard of every single word that she had just said nearly caused her heath bar to drop. "Huh? What? A Christmas Party?"

"Yep!" White nodded, putting her hands on her hips. "I mean, sure you can't celebrate with... well... you know. But you can still celebrate with friends and such, or at least us losers that force you to call them your friends at swordpoint. And I'm certain that there'll be a bunch of cool theme shit around that the NPC's will sell and such. Who knows? Maybe they'll have toffee!"

Silica grimaced, trying to give White a tiny smile, even though the idea was the last thing she wanted experience at all. "Thanks, but—"

The older girl held up a hand. "Oh, I wasn't asking you, cutie booty. I'm _telling_ , and if you even think about trying to bail, I'll find a way to drag you out of your room and to the party. Shit, if that doesn't work, I'll find a way to move the party to your room. This isn't up for negotiation either."

"The worst part is that I'm sure you're serious." Silica narrowed her eyes. "You know if I lock the my room door, you can't get in unless I let you, right?"

White grinned a little too wide. "I'll fucking find someone that discovered the lockpicking skill or something to help me out." She somehow grinned even wider. "Oh, and if you agree, I'll tell you a fairly important secret that you really should know, like, right now."

Rolling her eyes, Silica chuckled. "Fine fine. I'll come." _Maybe._ "Now what's the secret, oh wise one?"

White stood up straighter and pointed at her. "When you wear a skirt like that, you shouldn't sit with your knees to your chest."

Silica narrowed her brow. _Huh? What does she—_

She immediately slid her knees down and plowed her hands into her lap, pressing her tunic down. She could feel the heat on her cheeks as she looked down. "Did... did you see?"

"Literally everything, and I still say you should wear panties that match your skirt, but I guess the default white is cute too!" Giggling, White started to walk out of the alley. "Oh! I have an idea! Maybe I'll get you a pair of sexy lace panties for Christmas!"

Flushing deeper, Silica cried out, "White, you're kidding about that, right?" Her friend didn't respond. "White, please telling me you're kidding!" Her friend turned the corner and left the alley.

Eyes wide, Silica jumped to her feet and screamed. "I hate this tunic!"


	6. Chapter 6

Silica continued to grumble to herself as she brushed a rogue fern frond away from her path. Gingerly, she stepped over a collection of roots, making sure not to trip over them like she did the other five times in the past thirty minutes. She also made sure to step through the hole in the foliage and slowly let go of the fern to make sure she didn't get her face slapped by the frond, like the other ten or so times in the last _five_ minutes. She even made sure to keep her head down an extra second as she did all this so she didn't brush the top of her head against leaves she wasn't keeping away. Unfortunately, she forgot to check her footing on the other side of the roots, where she stepped halfway up her shin into a hole filled with water for the third time today.

She sighed. _And that was my dry foot too._

The last couple weeks had not been going well for Silica. First, White had been hounding her over what she was going to get Silica for Christmas. For a solid week, it was nothing but panties. Black panties. White panties. Frilly panties. Granny Panties. Cotton panties, Silk panties. Panties with bears on them. Panties with bows on them. Panties that were see through. Panties that could pass as dental floss. Panties panties panties! It was only when Silica told her she was going to burn the present if it ended up being panties that White finally gave up... only to start talking about bras... which was ten times worse.

Whenever she could get White off of the subject of panties and back onto a reasonable subject—reasonable being relative to her excitable friend—all that she and the rest of her friends could talk about was what to do with Christmas in general. It was almost unanimous that they were going to limit the giving of presents: spending all of your funds on random things for half a dozen people was not the best idea for trying to survive. The idea of a Secret Santa came up soon after, but considering it was impossible to anonymously trade items, that idea was shot down the moment it came up.

On and on it went, until it was finally decided to just draw names like it was Secret Santa, except just have it open and known who each person got. Her luck apparently left her that night, for White was the one that drew her name, spawning another slew of panty comment. To make it even worse, Silica got Marc Antony, which was a guy she had no idea what to get. That wasn't to say she wasn't going to try her hardest.

Which was exactly why she was here in this forest right now. On a stroke of luck—or at least she thought it was at the time—she overheard a few players talking near a sandwich stall she frequented about how they saw something that might have led credence to that whole "mounted combat" myth that Marc Antony was going on about. Well... _technically_ they were talking about a "giant bird that kobolds were trying to train to fly," but that was fairly close to the same thing. Add in the fact that higher-leveled characters were flocking to this floor, buying up feathers and information on their location in droves, and it had to mean _something._ Thus, considering proof, or at least evidence, of the mounted combat skill was a better present than anything else she could come up with, she packed up her gear and set out into the wilderness.

A menu pinged in front of her. After a roll of her eyes, she flicked it away for later. "Okay, maybe leaving without warning was a bad idea."

In hindsight, she definitely should've mentioned to everyone that she was going to be gone for several days, instead of packing up and leaving how she did. Instead of repairing her weapon and armor, stocking up on food and potions, or making sure she had all the camping supplies she needed, she just ran off towards adventure an hour after she overheard the tip. She was just thankful that she forgot to empty out her inventory after the last outing with their group, though even still she didn't know why she had nearly a week worth of food on her. It wasn't like she spent more than a single night out in the wild at a time, and even then it was _just_ outside of the city limits. Either way, she thanked her past self for her preparedness and trudged on.

And stepped in another puddle, making her other foot soaked again.

"God dammit," Silica uttered, before she blushed and shut her mouth. _Shoot! White's mouth is getting to me!_ Shaking her head, she continued along, making doubly sure that she didn't soak her feet any further. It was a successful effort, fortunately, though she found herself looking at the ground more than the actual forest around herself. Not like there was a view or anything, but it would've been fairly awkward if she walked right past the proof she needed on whether the skill existed or not, but was looking at the forest floor instead.

Or a monster; that'd be pretty bad too.

Fortunately, two more hours passed without any monsters ever showing up. Unfortunately, she was still no closer to finding a shred of evidence than she was when she first started the entire trip two days ago. Feeling a twinge in her stomach, she muttered, "I guess break time is fine."

She glanced to her left, finding herself a sizable fallen tree to sit on. A few steps and Silica hopped up and sat on top of it, the rotting bark rough against the back of her thighs. She navigated her inventory, pulled out a rice ball, and started munching on her late lunch. Silica made a face and looked at the supposed meal. "Oh right, that's why still have this in here. Not even salted."

Still, she nibbled on the rice ball and let her mind wander. Her thoughts soon latched onto the upcoming holidays again. Other than the gift that she was trying to get for Marc Antony, she was planning on sticking with the plan and not getting anyone else anything. Sure, she could get everyone some kind of trinket or snack or something, but if someone did that with her, she'd just say thank you, stick it in her inventory, and forget about it until later. Probably until the next time she went on a long overnight trip and needed extra food.

Though, she could get them chocolates or some kind of sweets. Would they like something like that? She'd gotten those sort of things for her friends when it was Christmas the past couple of years, but those friends were her age. As far as she was aware, Marc Antony was the youngest of their group of friends here, and he was _eighteen_. Heck, Silica was pretty sure White was in her mid twenties. That wasn't even talking about Fourbee! Do grownups give each other chocolates? Would they be good for the boys as well? Would it see like she was coming onto the guys?

She sighed, taking another mousey bite out of the tasteless ball. It was times like this where she wished she could ask someone she knew about all of this. Well, okay, she did know a fair bit of people, but they were all friends that she'd only known for the better part of a month, ignoring they were the ones she was actually thinking about getting the gifts for. _Maybe_ she could ask Marc Antony, since she was getting him something else entirely anyway, but other than... than... that Stick Boy that she forgot the name of, she knew him the least of their group. If only she could ask advice from her family. They'd know. Sanso would probably even be happy to let her drag him around town and help her out. If only she could get out of here and ask them... then she could... she could...

Silica shook her head, flinging the thoughts out of her head. She couldn't think about those sort of thoughts again, not after the last time she cried her eyes out in the middle of the street. At the time, the embarrassment alone almost made her want to just jump off the edge of the floor just so she wouldn't have to see all of the players looking at her. In hindsight, seeing someone cry in the street was not an unusual occurrence and most likely sympathized, if even noticed. Even so, it was probably good she immediately went on this trip right after. Doing things during her little solo adventure kept her mind occupied, which meant she didn't have to think about all that junk.

And one of the things her mind kept wandering to during this adventure was how many more adventures she probably needed to go on. Before she left, she heard that there were players that were as high as level fifteen in the game already. Heck, there were rumors that the highest level character was already level thirty-two, but that was probably just silly stories. Even if it was a story, level fifteen was crazy! She was still level seven! True, they kind of have a month head start, but she was still working fairly hard.

It'd just mean she'd have to work harder.

One last bite, and for better or worse, the unflavored rice was gone. Well, at least it filled her belly, even if it wasn't satisfying in the slightest. Wiping her hands on the skirt of her tunic, she stretched her arms out to her sides, letting out a groan as she felt her chest muscles tighten. After holding it for a couple seconds, she lowered them with a sigh. Silica then spun to the left, rested a leg on the log, and bent over to stretch the muscles in her hamstring and calf. It was somewhat interesting to think about: under her skin, the avatar didn't have anything even resembling muscles, bones or anything else. Yet she could still feel the burn of the muscles when worked them or stretched them. It made her wonder on if—

She turned her head to the right and narrowed her eyes. Holding her breath, she focused the best she could on the forest around her. Seconds passed, but everything was as silent as before, with only the sporadic sounds of songbirds singing. _Maybe I imagined it,_ she thought to herself. Wouldn't be the first time this trip she jumped at nothing. Wouldn't even be the tenth. Though, there were a few times that she was glad for her paranoia. "Heh, if nothing else, my listening skill is leveling... I think," she whispered to herself.

Again, she heard the noise, her head angling slightly more to the left. She swore it sounded like a mixture of a whimpers and laughing. Picking herself off of the fallen tree trunk, she crept through the foliage, doing her best to not make too much noise. Several times, a snapped twig underfoot nearly froze her blood... kinda... but each time she stepped on one it appeared that whoever—or whatever—didn't hear the sound. Granted she didn't hear the sounds from before anymore either, but she _knew_ there was something here.

Parting a few branches in a bush, she squinted and barely restrained the gasp that immediately threatened to rip out of her mouth. There were several Weak Kobold Minions—four visible from here—with fairly normal gear for what she would expect to see them wearing in the caves all over the floor. There were a few differences, like how they were holding spears in their hands instead of clubs that most normally wielded, but other than that nothing especially notable. However, what was most interesting wasn't even involved with the kobolds themselves.

Instead, what sucked in her attention was the older woman that was lying on the ground in front of them. Silica couldn't tell exactly what the woman looked like since she was facing the opposite direction, but she was wearing a white top that looked like a sweater and a long yellow skirt, with black buckled shoes over short white socks completing her outfit. Her gray hair was tied up in a bun, but it was easy to see that the woman had been tied up for quite a while, for the bun was completely disheveled, only a small step away from bursting out of it. Thankfully, the woman didn't have a green cursor over her head, meaning that it wasn't a player that was in trouble, but only an NPC.

Silica blinked. _Only an NPC?_ That thought didn't quite settle in her stomach the way she thought it would. Sure, she could just as easily hide or walk away and let the woman fall to whatever fate that they had in store for her—she was only an NPC, after all. However, it was that same mentality that was making her insides squirm: if she was already so okay with an NPC most likely dying like this, then how long would it take for her to feel that way about random players? How long until people she knew? How long until her friends?

Looking around, she made doubly sure to catch every detail of the scene in front of her. The woman was bound, her hands tied behind her back and her ankles tied together. It didn't appear that she was tied to a post or leashed or anything, but the kobolds were definitely keeping their attention on her. Three of the kobolds were laughing at the fourth, who was making a lot of sounds out of his mouth. Maybe attempting to question to her? Regardless, he appeared to be failing in every regard at his attempt to do something; with every passing second, he was getting more and more frustrated at her, which only served to send fresh hoots on hollers from the other three.

In other words, they were all distracted.

Holding her breath, she reached behind her back, gripping the hilt of her dagger. Slowly, as if drawing it faster would somehow alert them to her location, she slid the weapon free from its place and lowered it to her side, nearly scraping it against her boot. Four at once was a lot. Like, a lot lot. The most she'd taken at once on her own was two at the same time. The rest of the time she was with White and Black and the others. If she was going to do this without an issue, she'd have to do this right.

She envisioned it in her mind: she'd run forward, kill one kobold before it even had a chance to realize what was going on. Hopefully, she'd get such a clean and well placed it that she wouldn't need a second hit at all! Regardless, after that one was dead, she'd immediately go after the one that was screaming at the woman. He didn't have his weapons on hand like the others, so if she could finish him off before he could get them, it'd be perfect. If not, well, at least she could injure him a lot or something. After that, it'd be a pretty standard fight between effectively two kobolds: something she knew for certain that she could do. Nodding, she counted to ten, and jumped out of cover.

Her first step had her trip over a root.

Her second step was with her face splashing into puddle.

Groaning, she picked herself back up to a kneel, rubbing her head. Even if it didn't hurt, it was uncomfortable, and her now soaked hair was going to ruin the rest of her day. Rubbing her forehead, she blinked her eyes open... only to look straight into the eyes of all four Kobolds.

Somehow, her voice didn't crack at all. "Oh... hi?"

If they were happy to see her, they showed it in a very unfriendly way. Growling and barking at her, they grabbed their weapons and charged forward.

She immediately jumped up and, instead of charging at the three kobolds—that one near the woman still gathering his wits—she spun on her heel and dove back into the forest. "Okay, let's try a plan-B," she muttered to herself as she attempted to come up with a plan-B. Darting her eyes left, she turned around a particularly large tree and hid behind it.

A few beats and a kobold ran past. The moment he was completely visible, she darted forward and slammed her dagger into the monster's side, just below where its ribs would be. She buried the weapon to the hilt, her mouth twitching as she watched its health drop fantastically low with that one strike.

A flash out of the corner of her eye, and she ripped the dagger out of the kobold, jumping backwards. She felt the very edge of the second kobold's spear point glance against her cheek, surely cutting a fine red line across it. Thankfully, it was almost nothing, for she didn't even see her health drop out of the corner of her eye.

She jumped back a second time to get some distance, stumbling somewhat on the thick undergrowth. Before she completely righted herself, the kobold attempted to skewer her again, forcing her to skip right again, dodging it completely this time. The kobold jabbed again, but again she dodged, but this time she realized a serious issue. _Great, I can dodge sure, but good luck me getting close to him._ She scowled slightly, diving to the side to evade another stab at her chest.

Halfway through the roll, she felt a light prick against her left thigh, her health dropping along with it. Bungling the roll and falling on her chest, she scampered away on all fours, only chancing to look back when she put a few extra feet in between her and her enemies. _Oh, so not only did those first two catch up, but my hit didn't kill the first one. Perfect._

She jumped up to her feet and ran away again, dashing behind another few sets of trees, reaking the line of sight between them and her. She continued, running through a thick series of bushes as she tried to lose them for a few extra seconds in her attempts to come up with plan-C.

The moment she came through the bush, she saw the gleam of a spear point ramming right towards her face.

Instincts flaring, she dropped to her knees and nearly laid down on her back, sliding across this somewhat clear portion of the forest. The spear went high, catching a couple strands of her hair in the process. She went slightly past him, sliding past his left side, and immediately spun around on her knees to face him. Not bothering to get up, she sliced at the kobold's ankles, slicing deeply across the left one. With a howl, the kobold's left leg gave out, and he collapsed onto the ground.

Silica didn't stick around. Instead, she sprang back to her feet and continued running through the forest. Jumping behind another tree and leaned against it, she brought her dagger to her chest and panted deeply. "How can... I get... out of breath... when I don't... have lungs..."

She filed it away under things to ask Marc Antony later, for she heard the other three kobolds nearing. They apparently found where she left their fourth, for their pursuit ceased, replaced with sounds of them talking amongst one another. The absolute worst case would be that they abandoned their apparently crippled companion and just continued to follow her. If they did that... she wasn't sure she could win a three on one, and she wasn't sure they would let her pull another hit-and-run again.

Well, technically the worst case was if they had somehow had healing abilities, but she refused to even consider that possibiliy.

Slowly, her breathing evened out, and she was able to read the scene on the other side of the tree that much better. It was still confusing and completely intelligible, but it sounded like they had just stopped arguing, most likely now making their move. Even with her even breaths, her heart hammered in her chest. Of course, it wasn't like the "heart" actually did anything, of which Marc Antony had repeatedly told her. It was only—

She shook her head. _Focus, Keiko. Focus!_ Another second... and... there!

Coming around the corner of the tree, to her right, she barely saw the lead kobold slowly creep by, checking all around him for signs of her. She saw him turning her direction, so she took another half step to the left, putting the tree in between her and the kobold. Instead of attacking him, she'd attack the second one to mix things up. If there were three there... well... she'd cross that bridge when she came to it. She continued around the tree to creep up on the second kobold from behind.

For the second time in three minutes, she saw a spear point heading straight towards her face.

 _Shit!_ she cried out mentally. Instead of dodging, she brought up her left arm to bat the spear away. She mistimed it, and instead of knocking the spear away with her forearm she instead took the point of the spear directly into her arm, the point running through it completely. The only fortunate part of it—other than the fact that she didn't feel what should have undoubtedly been astonishing pain—was that by attaching her arm to said spear, she easily deflected it away from her body. A moment later and she rammed her dagger up into the kobold's throat. She lingered only for a second before she slashed it to the side, pulling the dagger out with the slice. The kobold and the still-attached spear exploded into polygons a moment later.

Silica jumped back, another kobold's spear slicing across the middle of her chest. She moved back more, again using her left arm to bat away the spear, though thankfully not getting stabbed in the process this time. Turning, she stepped forward, only to duck left to avoid another jab.

Seven more strikes came her way, and she dodged most of them. Those that she didn't dodge only left pencil-thin red scrapes against her body. She desperately looked for an opening to exploit, but each time she moved forward, she paid for it with another cut against her. It was impossible for her to get any closer.

A brief opening appeared, but it only let her jump back and behind the same tree she was hiding behind earlier. She had no time for a breather, for as soon as she stepped behind the tree did she see the kobold charging around it. Instead of running around the tree more, she dove forward, braving the stab that was heading her direction.

She raised her dagger, luck itself parrying the spear away from her as she closed the distance. For a brief moment, she saw the creature pull his spear back, but she was well inside it's reach. She slashed forward, slicing into the kobold and causing it to stagger backwards. She stayed with him, stepping forward with every stagger, sending a dozen slices all over his body, until it finally exploded into polygons. She spun around again, towards where the third kobold would be approaching from, but he never did.

 _Must have hung back._ Lowering her weapon, she glanced around herself, but saw and heard nothing coming from around her. A quick look at her health bar, and she nearly threw up at the sight. A dangerous amount was missing and, while not red, she was sure scraping her knee would get her there. _What the hell!? Did I really get that hurt!?_ She opened her inventory, scrolled past a few things before she got to one of the few health potions she owned, and froze.

"Do I really want to use one of these now?" She asked herself. A beat later and she was shaking her head. "There are two more out there. Better drink it and not need it than..."

Trailing off, she popped the cork of the bottle and drank. The effects were immediate, her health slowly start to climb back to comfortable levels. She watched the meter climb well into the yellow section, hitting the green section a moment later. Sighing, she brought her dagger back up and crept up over to where she left the injured kobolds earlier, most likely with its friend.

There was nothing blocking her view as she looked onto the small clearing and the sole kobold laying there, his cries quiet now. _Wait!_ Eyes flaring wide, she jumped back and raised her dagger forward in front of her, but the expected sneak attack never came. She waited longer, but the attack still still never came. A few more seconds her had before she slowly crept forward, her eyes constantly scanning the forest around her. _Maybe the last one left to get help? Can monsters do that?_

Regardless, she kept her guard up, slowly inching over to the crippled kobold, who either did not notice her or wasn't even bothering to make noise to put up a fight. For a moment, Silica felt a slight sense of guilt: she was basically killing a defenseless creature by doing this. Then her mind went back to the thoughts that it was not only a monster in a computer program, but it had tried to kill her. Her guilt washed away soon after.

Now a step away from the fallen kobold, the forest to her right exploded outward, along with the last kobold. Fortunately for Silica, she was expecting something like this, her guard already up for a quick counter. Even more fortunate for her was how this was the kobold that she nearly killed several minutes ago, his health well into the red zone.

She leaned back, easily evading the spear coming towards her neck from her right. She didn't even need to turn as she raised her dagger and jabbed at him, stabbing the monster right where his heart could be. He croaked as the health bar went to zero, then he exploded a second later. Silica didn't bother waiting before she moved forward a step and buried the dagger in the chest of the one on the ground. The health meter of that one slowly depleted until it too reached zero, then he too exploded.

She let out a breath, suddenly remembering to breathe, and slid down onto the ground. Legs splaying out on either side of her, she saw the ever familiar matte-colored loot menu appear in the air in front of her, a sure sign that the battle was over. She raised her left hand to click it away, only for her to stop. She stared at her hand as it and her entire arm trembling violently.

Silica closed her eyes, focusing only on her breathing. It was slow going, but eventually she got her breathing to calm and her hand to steady somewhat. Even still, her hand trembled lightly as she opened her eyes, lifted her hand, and clicked the confirmation button. Reaching behind her with her right hand, she fumbled with her scabbard somewhat before she finally slid her dagger home with a clink. With another deep breath, she remained on the ground for a few minutes more, savoring the brief moment of peace for a little while longer.

Eventually, Silica opened her eyes and got to her feet. Brushing the dirt and leaves off of her legs and skirt—a fruitless cause, considering there never was any—and attempted to fix her still soaked hair—also a fruitless cause, considering it was still soaked—she started to backtrack her way over to where she initially found the group of kobolds. It was a task that took much, much longer than she was hoping for: the previous running battle covered much more ground than she remembered. Still, after about five minutes she was able to make her way back to the clearing, with the previous NPC woman still laying there on the ground.

Grinning to herself, she strode over to the woman. Hands on her hips, Silica looked down and boasted in the most heroic voice she could possibly muster, "Good thing I got here when I did! Who knows what those kobolds would've done to you!" Closing her eyes, she waited for the woman to thank her.

All she got was a few muffled noises.

Furrowing her brow, she looked down at the woman, finally noticing that not only was the woman tied up and blindfolded, but she was gagged as well. _Wait, gagged? Weren't the kobolds trying to talk to her? Why is she gagged!?_ Silica rolled her eyes, chalking it up to shoddy programing or whatever. Instead, she bent down and started working on the knots on the woman's bindings. "Heh heh, sorry about that," she said in a much less heroic tone. "I didn't realize you were bound up like this."

The old lady NPC shook off the remains of the bindings, rubbing the red marks off of her wrists. Slowly, the lady shifted her weight, getting to her knees. Silica offered the NPC a hand, but the lady either didn't see it or ignored it, and slowly stood onto her two feet. She wobbled a little, but even then, still didn't take Silica's outstretched arm for support. Straightening her clothes, she brushed a few bits of dirt off of her outfit and fixed up her somewhat frazzled bun. The lady turned to Silica, her mouth not even showing a hint of a smile.

Still, Silica kept a smile on her face. "There we are! So, how are you feeling, Miss?"

The lady stared at Silica for a few long, lingering seconds—long enough for Silica to start to believe that the lady was actually a mute of some kind or... well... mentally similar to Black. Then, the woman said, "What took you so long?"

Silica blinked. "Huh?"

That one sound from Silica's mouth apparently opened the floodgates for the woman. "I asked what took you so long, you lazy good-for-nothing! I have been laying here, tied up by those monsters for who knows how long, and you _finally_ show up? Why, in my day, a hero would've been there to help the moment I was attacked! What would have you done if I was taken away? What would you do if I was hurt? What if they called more lizard men? Hmm? What would have you done then, _Heroine?_ " She crossed her arms and looked away. "Young people these days... and close your mouth, young lady! It is rude to look at people like that"

She blinked, realizing that, indeed, her jaw was slacked. Shaking her head and blinking her eyes, she worked her jaw for a few seconds before replying. "Wait... you're blaming me for... not getting here fast enough!? What would have happened if I didn't show up at all!?"

"Some other dashing hero would have shown up, I am quite certain. Who, if I am not mistaken—and I never am—would have done a much better job than you have." Silica opened her mouth again, but the lady continued. "Though, regardless on the lack of quality of job you carried through with, you did technically save me, so for that, I am obligated to thank you."

Silica nodded. "Uh huh..."

"Oh don't just stand there staring, young lady. It is unbecoming of you. Now, are you going to assist me in getting home, or are you going to show me more of how lacking you are in being a polite and proper woman, hmm?" With that, the lady simply turned on her heel and made her way into the forest. As she did so, an exclamation mark appeared over her head: an obvious signal that this indeed was a quest, and not just some weird... thing that she just stumbled upon.

Rolling her eyes, she selected and quickly accepted the quest to "Escort the Old Lady Home," and followed along. Three steps later, and her foot sunk down several inches as it splashed into a puddle of water.

 _And that foot was just about dried too._


	7. Chapter 7

Well, I decided to be one of _those_ fanfic writers and leave this thing alone for way too long. Apologies for that! Now let's forget about all of that and get on with what you really want.

* * *

"I still cannot believe you young children think that you should have the entire world handed to you on a silver platter! Just because you're young doesn't mean that you should be excused from work!"

"Skip."

"Why, I'll have you know that, back in my day, we had to work in the fields, day in and day out, until our hands were raw and our feet bled. Fun? The only fun we had was seeing how many cabbages we could harvest in a day. School? Bah! The parents taught the oldest and left them to teach the younger children. And you know what? We still knew more than you children know today!"

"Mute."

"There's a reason our wonderful world is falling apart nowadays. Heck, 'merely' would be if you were putting the news in a positive light! I swear, if the world doesn't destroy itself in a decade, why, I would be surprised. No, actually, I would be, because that would mean that you lazy children actually got up for five minutes and accomplished something worth mention!"

"Silence."

"So, what is your excuse, young lady? Are you content letting your overworked and overburdened elders do all the work for you? Do you think that by letting your tired grandparents carry your burdens that you can just laze around and let them carry _you_? Should I bring out your palanquin, your majesty? Ha, as if you even know what that word means."

"Finish. Complete. End. Terminate."

Silica continued to ramble on various words, nearly all synonyms of "quiet" and "end," as she was led along by the old woman. At the start, the NPC's antics were more amusing than anything else: the "cranky old woman" character was definitely different from any other archetype she'd seen so far. Within five minutes of said quest beginning, the hag had started to complain about near literally anything that Silica could imagine was possible to complain about—most of it involving those "young lazy kids." Within fifteen, Silica no longer found this archetype amusing in any way. Thirty, and she had given up on trying to pay attention to the noises around her, simply resigning to impending sneak attacks. Forty-five, and Silica was nearly begging the game to send them said attack so that she could at least have the witch shut up for a few minutes. Not too many enemies though; Silica still wanted to survive all of this.

The evil woman next to her? Silica felt fewer strong opinions.

Thankfully, what was _three hours later,_ the canopy of leaves above slowly cleared to let the light of a clearing shine through. Or at least she thought that might be the case; she imagined the same thing an hour back, but instead found only more trees and ferns and despair. That didn't matter now, though, for this time it was surely the edge of the forest and she were going to leave it and the old nasty woman next to her and go on with her life! Happy thoughts!

Silica reached to a tree next to her and knocked on the trunk.

After listening to only another fifteen minutes of the wretched example of computer programming continuously insulting her and everyone with two digits in their age, the light slowly trickling down from above erupted in full force, showing that indeed they were nearing the edge of the forest. A smile broke across Silica's face, and she had to fight the urge to rush forward and start kissing the ground. Instead, she restrained herself to merely hastening her pace.

That smile morphed into a gasp and giggle as the last few trees were left behind her. Ahead, no more than a couple hundred paces away, was a tiny village separated from the forest by a large expanse of grass. Well, calling it a village would've been quite generous, for Silica was fairly certain five small buildings and a rough dirt road wasn't enough to fit the definition of an actual village. All but one of the buildings appeared identical, with all five forming a horseshoe ring around a well. The five buildings were nearly square with the walls of each made of wooden planks. Cheap wooden shingles covered the roofs of the smaller four, with the fifth still being wooden shingles, but seemingly a slightly better quality. From the way the four smaller buildings were rotated, she could tell they all had six windows: two on the longer walls and one on each of the shorter sides. The fifth and larger of the buildings had what looked like twice as many, six on the first floor and six on the second.

The front door of the houses faced the inside of the horseshoe, facing the stone well in the center. Surprisingly, at least to Silica, the doors were roofed by a covered porch, seemingly the only luxury granted to them. The largest of the buildings stood in the middle of the horseshoe, nearly double the size of the other four due to the second floor. Granted, a building twice the size of structures only as large as her real-world bedroom wasn't saying much, but it said something.

Silica shrugged to herself. _Though, whatever it says, I don't know._

"Finally!" the hag said, her tone beyond exasperated. "Looks like you aren't entirely useless. I have to say you exceeded my expectations."

Silica smiled.

"After all, you were able to follow me all the way here without crying out for mommy or complaining about the mosquitoes."

Silica frowned.

A few seconds later and she trudged after her supposed charge, the quest _still_ not triggering as completed. The witch led them into the village and towards the largest of the buildings. As Silica shadowed the crone, she noticed that the few villagers that called this settlement home—Silica could only count about ten standing and walking around the dusty road—were openly staring at the pair. _Do I have something on my face?_ she thought to herself. Probably not; she was well aware that the stares that everyone was shooting at them were less at her and more at the crank. _A well-known crank?_ She didn't voice her question—suicide wasn't part of today's schedule.

Without even knocking on the front door, the banshee burst into the two-story building and yelled, "I'm home, you good-for-nothing oaf!"

"Mother? Is that you?" Mr. Oaf asked, nearly twisting himself into a spring as he spun his head around in a blur. Silica was surprised at how fast he could twist around, considering how overweight he was. Sure, he wasn't the heaviest man she'd met, but easily the heaviest NPC. It looked like he was less fat and more just blown up like a balloon, considering how his shirt and trousers were too tight and his weight seemed to mostly gather around his belly. A full beard hiding additional chins, a mop of curly brown hair, and a couple of stains on his shirt completed his look.

Standing from the dining room table he was previously eating at, he dropped his fork and knife and took a few shaky steps as he crossed the wooden floor. "You're... you're alive..."

"Of course I'm alive. You aren't so lucky as to be rid of me yet," The monstrous woman declared as she stomped past Mr. Oaf. She made straight for the kitchen, opening several cabinets to pull out some food from the cupboard.

Silica remained silent as Mr. Oaf half-turned to where the bat now busied herself, but whatever he was planning on saying died on his lips, apparently deciding against voicing it. Instead, he turned back to Silica and said, "Thanks for bringing back my mother."

Nodding, Silica replied. "No problem, Mr..."

"Oh, my apologies! Where are my manners? My name is Earl." He smiled, extending a hand towards her.

She took it, giving it a shake. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Earl. I'm Silica."

"A pleasure, young adventurer. Please, if you don't mind," he said, gesturing towards the stairs. Hesitating a moment—she wasn't sure if Mama's and Papa's advice about creepers applied to NPS's—Silica stepped towards and up the stairs creaking with every step as she climbed the twenty or so steps. Taking a glance around the upper floor, she noted it was mostly the same style as the ground floor: that of wood **.** Wooden walls and wooden floors supported large wooden crossbeams overhead. To Silica's right, a small round table was placed, standing near an open wall that overlooked the first floor of the building. Three wicker chairs surrounded the table on three sides, with a simple oil lamp on the table. To the left, there were three beds: one queen-sized and two twins. A simple bedside table sat in between the queen and the nearest twin bed. Giving the room light were windows surrounding the entire floor, each window on this floor directly another a respective one on the ground floor.

"Please, make yourself comfortable," Mr. Earl said from beside her, motioning with his hand towards the table and chairs. Taking the hint, she pulled out the nearest chair and seated herself, flattening her skirt out as she did so. She watched as Mr. Earl sat across from her and couldn't help but to raise an eyebrow as he set down two ceramic cups he got from _somewhere._ Sliding one towards her, she noted it was filled with... lemonade? Silica sniffed the cup. Probably lemonade.

"Again, I would like to thank you for saving my mother," Mr. Earl said, taking a sip of his drink. Leaning forward, he said in a much more hushed tone, "Even though she's... quite the handful."

Taking that as a cue to relax her lips, Silica let out a groan and scratched her cheek. "Ugh, don't remind me. I saved her and everything, and she does nothing but complain the whole way back to the village!"

Mr. Earl chuckled, shrugging slightly. "That's just my mother's way, really. She comes off as hard and cold lady—and she really is—but she means well."

Silica nearly retorted, but swallowed the "more like a cranky vile creature" comment that threatened to escape her lips. Instead, she forced a convincing smile onto her face. She wasn't sure if she succeeded in the convincing part. "Well, if you say so, I believe you."

Again, Mr. Earl shrugged. "Well, as long as one of us does, that's good enough for me."

Silica nodded, then blinked. "Wait, huh?"

Mr. Earl waved his hand in the air, brushing away the current subject. "It's not important. Besides, she's been extra... emotional lately, what with the whole incident a week ago."

"Incident?" Silica cocked her head. "She was kidnapped that long ago?"

He shook his head. "Oh no no, she was only taken earlier this morning while trying to find our village guardian."

As soon as the words left his lips, a question mark appeared over his head. _Oh? A hidden quest chain?_ Silica thought, her heart rate quickening slightly and a smirk appearing on her face. _I've heard of these before! Front Liners say that you can get some crazy good items or unique skills from them! Though... even if it's deep in the forest, how did everyone miss this quest? I thought the first floor was completely explored five times over now._ After a second, she shook her head. _Doesn't matter, I guess._

Not seeing an obvious display or button to accept the quest as per normal, she simply continued the conversation. "Well, if you need help finding your guardian, I could lend a hand."

"Oh no no. After all you've done, I couldn't possibly accept your help. You've done so much for us already."

Silica grinned wider. "Oh please, good sir, I insist!"

Mr. Earl sighed, possibly weighing the options of accepting her help—though, Silica supposed he was just an NPC, most likely not—until he eventually sagged his shoulders. "Young adventurer, I'd be honored to accept your help on this endeavor." Sighing again, he sipped at his drink.

Suddenly realizing the yet undrunk cup still in her hands she took a sip. The moment the yellow liquid splashed against her tongue, her eyes widened. _Holy... this is the best lemonade I've ever tasted!_ She downed the rest of the nectar in a couple gulps until the vessel was dry.

Lamenting the loss of her loved one, she asked, "So... what do you know about the guardian and its location? I'd rather get started sooner rather than later."

He nodded. "Well, I don't know much really; the guardian business is really my mother's expertise. All I know is it's supposedly a giant bird-thing."

Silica raised an eyebrow. "A giant bird-thing?"

Mr. Earl shrugged. "Supposedly."

"I... see..." Silica trailed off. She raised the cup to her lips. Still empty. Drat.

"Like I said, it's mostly my mother that knows about it, and she's not the most... welcoming when it comes to giving people what they want." Silica nodded, remaining silent as Mr. Earl continued. "But as I said, it's a giant bird, so can't be hard to find."

Again, Silica bobbed her head. "I guess."

"Good. Anyway," Mr. Earl said as he stood and looked out the window, "I would feel guilty sending a young lady like yourself out on your own this late into the afternoon. If you'd take up the offer, I extend my hospitality to you for dinner and a place to sleep."

As if on cue, Silica felt her stomach rumble in gleeful anticipation. A smile broadening across her face, Silica said, "I—"

"What is my failure of a son trying to pull today? Hmm?"

Silica's smile died right there, taking the rest of her happy thoughts with it. Turning around, she saw Mother Hag climbing the steps with a sandwich on a plate and a drink in hand. Not bothering to wait for an invitation, she pulled out the last remaining chair and plopped herself down. Picking the sandwich up, she said, "Let me guess: he's making a fool of himself and all of our ancestors."

"Mother, please." Mr. Earl sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I simply offered the young lady dinner and a place to stay for the evening as thanks for rescuing you."

"For rescuing me? Bah! I had everything under control." Shifting her gray hair over her shoulder, she looked at Silica out of the corner of her eye. "Besides, I thought you would resist trying to seduce girls with less years than you have chins."

"Mother!" Mr. Earl shouted as Silica gagged, coughing into her hand. "I'm not trying to s... to... you know! I'm simply thanking her!"

"Right right, of course." The horrible, horrible, and downright disgusting creature turned fully towards Silica, and she couldn't help but to gulp. Seemingly looming over her, the demon said, "Regardless, if my miserable, perverted, and touchy-feely son of mine offered, it'd be ill-mannered of me to retract the invitation. Well, my little young lady, would you like to stay the evening and sleep cuddled up next to my middle-aged, balding, and overweight son?"

A few hours later and Silica was setting up her blanket, bedroll, and pillow on the grass just outside of the village, but still within the safe zone. Was it rude to say no to Mr. Earl and his evil mother? Probably. However, there wasn't the slightest of chances she was going to stay there with the possibility of him trying to pull something. Sure, considering that her Moral Code setting was still set to safe, it should've been impossible for anything that would ruin her chances to get married to happen, but any nonzero chance was high enough—especially considering Sword Art Online marketing already lied on a few features of the game—for bailing to be the best option. Thankfully, the adults were kind enough to give her a couple days' worth of food to "ward off the bite of the cold." Regardless, she'd slept outside enough that she was prepared for anything.

At least, until she woke up covered in a blanket of snow.

"What the heck?" Silica muttered as she sat up from her open-air bedroll, letting the snow fall off her. All around her, a crisp, fresh sheet of fresh powder stretched, covering anything and everything. The trees in the forest were burdened by their fresh burden, a few every-so-often shedding themselves of their load and allowing heaps of snow to fall to the ground. In the town, near every building was covered by the snow. However, all the houses were surrounded by a small ringed mound, undoubtedly produced by the buildings dropping sheets of packed snow from their roofs. On many other days, the view would've been breathtaking.

Sadly, suddenly finding out that she slept under an open sky in the middle of a snowstorm did not count as most days. _How_ she stayed asleep through the entire thing was a mystery all in its own.

Another second, and a violent shiver raced up from Silica's feet, up her legs, and all the way to her ears. Immediately, her arms were hugging herself and her knees were together, painfully aware at how bare her legs and shoulders were with the starting outfit she still wore. "Stupid skirt..." Silica muttered, her teeth rattling together. "Why do the guys get pants while girls get miniskirts." Chancing a moment, she reached forward towards the bedroll, pressed it, and watched her modest bedding disappear into her inventory. With that, and after noting her distinct lack of any snow-related gear whatsoever in her inventory, she continued.

Throughout the morning, amongst the soft crunching of snow underfoot, she hugged herself and heard her own teeth clattering against each other, staggered breaths escaping her throat. If her arms weren't best served hugging herself at the moment and her feet best for marching, she would've been punching or kicking herself. Sure, the weather yesterday was clear and warm enough, but she _knew_ the game had seasons, and _of course_ Christmas was coming up. _Obviously_ it would get cold at some point. How could she go out like this without any winter gear?! Stupid stupid!

However, as cold as she was, she wasn't taking any actual damage—although the new snowflake-shaped status effect near her heath bar was new. As such, she allowed the thoughts of being what might be the first player to complete this quest-line warm her spirit, if not her body. Yes, with this, she would obtain the greatest weapon in the game, fit for a true hero, and save everyone!

The thought got her through the first half of the first day.

But by lunchtime, that happy, warm feeling had numbed into a dull, frozen ache. Sure, the _Stuffed Jalapeños_ that Mrs. Hag and her son put together for her were fantastic and aided in driving away the worst of the ice in her veins, along with that status effect, it wasn't perfect. After all, Silica never was a fan of spicy foods, and those stuffed peppers was probably the top spicy meals she'd ever eaten, even if the pain of the spiciness didn't translate well into the game. Still, the meal lived up to the flavor text of "helping to drive away frostbite."

Sadly, that spicy warmth brought by those peppers lasted but a scant hour until the biting cold returned with a vengeance, along with that snowflake-shaped effect. Thankfully, here in the depths of the forest itself, the trees blocked whatever wind might've dared to pick up. Unfortunately, said trees reduced the visibility to scarcely nothing, making the guardian search... problematic.

Which lead to the situation Silica found herself in now: laying in the snow, under the stars, with nothing but the bedroll under her, a thin sheet over her, and the scant clothes on her back to ward against the chill. As her teeth rattled and her body quaked, she lamented the failure that yesterday ended up being: the entire day had been one giant bust. Hell, apparently the snow had become some kind of monster deterrent, for other than a two plant monsters that she couldn't remember the name of, there was nothing to break the monotony of the entire search. _Where is everything? You'd think the loss of the village guardian would mean monsters would flock here or something._ Whatever the case, if nothing else, it gave her peace of mind enough to risk camping out like this outside a safe zone. A couple hours later and Silica fell into a shivering, dreamless sleep.

And thus was how Silica's next few days played out. Wake up shivering, walk around shivering, utterly annihilate some under-leveled plant-thing while shivering, wander around some more while shivering, go to bed shivering, and somehow find the time to shove spicy food in between her clattering teeth three times a day. The food that Mrs. Hag and Mr. Earl gave her only lasted until the end of the second day, after which she was back to lumpy, unsalted rice balls. Even those would only last a few more days, after which it was either discover the joys of hunting and cooking with no relevant skills whatsoever, or discover if death through starvation was a mechanic. Considering her only hunting tools—or at least items that could pass as hunting tools—were her dagger with questionable durability, a nearly destroyed spear, and a short sword, and things weren't looking entirely favorable. That was ignoring the fact that she had no idea how to start a campfire to cook the thing she would fail to find and catch.

By day five, Silica was tramping through the forest, still cold, still affected by that snowflake, but now down to her last rice ball. "Stupid quest. Why did I agree to this anyway? Why couldn't Mrs. Devil do it instead?" Silica asked herself, finding no answer in response. Either way, it was time for lunch. Just like almost every other meal so far, she found a large rock to sit on, brushed some of the snow off the top, then carefully sat atop it as she made sure her skirt was between the icy rock and her skin. Still shaking, she slowly opened and closed her completely numb fingers, the motion as muted as it had been for days now. _This only started after the snow. Gotta be a slow or something._

Regardless of which, she pressed the _Rice Ball_ in her inventory to materialize it. When it appeared, her shivering and numb fingers fumbled it and it fell to the ground. A beat, then it exploded into polygons as its tiny durability depleted instantly.

Silica blinked.

Silica blinked again.

Silica blinked again again.

The last of her food did not reform.

Silica scre—

A flash of movement out of the corner of her eye slammed her mouth shut. Instead, she spun her head around and squinted. _I could've sworn that... there!_

Between a thinner area of trees, Silica could make out a small hint of red and silver contrasting against the white of the rest of the forest. Rice ball forgotten, she jumped off the rock and immediately fell into a crouch, the snow swallowing her up halfway to the shin. She carefully crept along, wincing at every crunch of snow her boots shouted. Thankfully, while the snow screamed out her footsteps, it also swallowed them and every other noise in the forest.

A few more tepid steps and one fallen pile of snow later and she found herself hunched behind the last standing tree before a tiny clearing. There, at the mouth of a cave thirty feet distant, stood a single kobold. However, unlike any of the others she'd fought before, this one wore a metal helmet and some metal armor that covered its chest. _Chestplate, they called it? Probably. But why?_ Regardless, he stood there, by himself, guarding something important, and Silica hadn't fought anything worthy in days.

As such, it was going to die.

Her legs exploded into motion, carrying her across the short distance in no time at all despite the snow. Not even numb fingers stopped her as Silica drew her weapon smoothly and jumped, catching the kobold before it could even shift its stance. The monster only had time to widen its eyes before she tackled it, barreling both over and put it on its back with her on top. She straddled its midsection and, before it could let out a yelp, she lifted her dagger and plunged it into its face.

Surprisingly, it survived what certainly was a critical hit to the face. It even survived the second critical. It didn't survive the third.

 _Boring,_ Silica thought to herself as she stood, sheathing her dagger. More than boring, it was a depressing letdown: with a new monster in a new environment during a special quest, she expected some sort of actual fight. Instead, it acted like a standard kobold and it went down just as easily... well... almost as easily.

"Well, whatever." She shrugged, moving her hand to dismiss the post-battle menu. Just as she was about to press the button, she froze. In addition to the slightly elevated XP and Col, there was a strange item included: a _Blue Feather._

She selected it, allowing the feather to appear in her hand. Frowning, she held it up against the sky. "This supposed to be a clue of some sort?" she muttered, turning over in her hand. The item didn't have anything written on it except the flavor text stating _"A brilliant blue feather."_ "Is it even supposed to do anything?" Regardless, she dematerialized it back into her inventory.

Feather stowed, she glanced down at the cave sitting in front of her. Well... calling it a cave was somewhat misleading, for a proper description would be a glorified hole in the ground. Just wide enough to fit her, plus a little wiggle room, it bore down into the earth until darkness prevented any further inspection. All sides were made up of a grey rock, with no real notable markings to show.

On one hand, the thought of climbing in a hole like this was insane just to imagine. On another hand, the hole wouldn't have been put here if players would get stuck it in, and it had to have something of interest in it—why have a guard at the front otherwise? On a third hand, if she were attacked while she was navigating the tunnel, considering she was an agility build and not a vitality build... well...

She shook her head. _Don't think about that sort of thing._ Mentally tossing the subject back and forth, she stood at the entrance for several minutes. Finally, as snowflakes once again started to land on her shoulders and she noticed the sun was just about an hour before setting, she growled and mumbled, "Fine, game; I get the hint," and crawled on in.


End file.
